Sanitation Driver Who Killed Pedestrian is Back on Job Less Than Two Months After Crash

Credit: News12
Credit: News12

SB Donation NYC header 2The city Sanitation driver who killed a Crown Heights pedestrian by driving the wrong way down a one-way street — then tried to turn his massive vehicle around as part of a cover-up — is back on the job less than two months after the crime.

Aaron Gilchrist had been charged with failing to yield to a pedestrian, driving the wrong way on a one-way street and failing to exercise due care after running over Alberto Leal, 37, early on Oct. 11. Police say that Gilchrist, 33, turned right from Eastern Parkway onto Brooklyn Avenue — going the wrong direction on the southbound one-way. He struck Leal in the crosswalk. He then tried to cover up his crime by turning his truck around, a video shows.

Aaron Gilchrist in a photo obtained by the New York Daily News.
Aaron Gilchrist in a photo obtained by the New York Daily News.

At the time, a Sanitation spokesman said the 13-year department vet had been suspended pending an internal DSNY investigation of the crash.

Well…

That investigation is “ongoing,” said the spokesman, Vito Turso. He told Streetsblog that Gilchrist was allowed to return to work — albeit in a modified role that will keep him from getting behind the wheel of a garbage truck — because his “suspension time was up.”

The Daily News originally reported that Gilchrist has returned to work. Gilchrist earned $120,918 last year.

SB Donation NYC header 2

  • My approach to the street is to assume that every vehicle driver cannot see me, and also has zero regard for my life. As paranoiac as that sounds I take even more care around garbage trucks these days. I will even pull over on my bike and let them pass. I want nothing to do with them.

  • sbauman

    Mr. Gilchrist modified role will not place him behind the wheel. Let’s hope nobody spots him driving a sanitation truck. That would be a legitimate headline, if anyone does.

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