Action Carting, the private trash hauling company whose driver killed cyclist Neftaly Ramirez last month in Greenpoint, holds an additional $51 million in city contracts on top of the $74 million in business previously reported by Streetsblog.
Ramirez's death marked the fifth time since 2008 that an Action Carting driver killed a pedestrian or cyclist on NYC streets. Last week, Streetsblog asked City Hall how continuing to do business with Action Carting squares with Mayor de Blasio's Vision Zero agenda. De Blasio spokesperson Natalie Grybauskas avoided the question.
Municipal records show that Action has two contracts with the Department of Sanitation, both procured in September 2011 under the Bloomberg administration: one for $27 million under the name Action Environmental Systems, LLC, and another for $23 million under the name IWS Transfer Systems of NJ. Both contracts are for the "export of municipal solid waste from the borough of Brooklyn."
The five city contracts previously reported by Streetsblog are with NYC DOT and the Department of Environmental Protection.
A former Action Carting driver told Streetsblog that employees often work 12-14 hour shifts without breaks in order to complete their rounds.
Despite the seven contracts totaling $125 million in business with the city, the de Blasio administration gave no indication last week that it intends to use its leverage to penalize Action Carting or otherwise push for safer practices at the company.
The driver who killed Ramirez will face no legal consequences either, after NYPD preemptively absolved him for the fatal hit-and-run.
