UPDATE: Sanitation Truck Driver Arrested After Killing Pedestrian in Crown Heights
The garbage truck driver allegedly drove the wrong way onto Brooklyn Avenue. Notice the “Passenger Cars Only” sign. Photo: Google
A Department of Sanitation garbage truck driver was arrested after running over and killing a man on Eastern Parkway Thursday morning, the NYPD said.
Driver Aaron Gilchrist was heading westbound on the parkway at 6:47 a.m. and turned right heading north onto Brooklyn Avenue, against the flow of traffic on the one-way street. That's where he struck the 37-year-old pedestrian, killing him before cops even had a chance to arrive on the scene from a 911 call, police said.
Gilchrist, 33, was charged with failing to yield to a pedestrian, driving the wrong way on a one-way street and failing to exercise due care.
A spokesman for the Sanitation Department said Gilchrist, who has been with the department since December, 2005, has been suspended.
"We continue to cooperate fully with the NYPD," said the spokesman, Vito Turso. "In addition, a DSNY safety investigation is also underway."
The victim, Alberto Leal, lived on nearby Nostrand Avenue, NYPD said.
According to police, Gilchrist hit Leal as he turned right from Eastern Parkway onto Brooklyn Avenue — going the wrong direction on the southbound one-way.
City sanitation trucks generally have a better safety record than private sanitation companies, which have come under fire for killing cyclists and pedestrians. But in August, a city garbage truck driver severely injured a woman on Evergreen Avenue in Bushwick.
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