Personal Injury Law

TRUCK DRIVER KILLS TWO IN MANHATTAN

In a frightening example of employee negligence that resulted in the wrongful death of two innocent people, a truck driver who is reported to have voluntarily quit taking his seizure medication lost consciousness and control of his garbage truck, killing two tourists from England when his truck jumped a curb, according to the New York Times. The crash took place in the late evening hours of February 12th, in Manhattan, on West 35th Street, between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of Americas. Action Carting Environmental Services of Newark are the owners of the truck driven by the truck driver, 52 year-old Auvryn Scarlett. A passenger in the garbage truck with Scarlett indicated he saw that Scarlett was driving erratically and he tried to grab the wheel and get control of the truck.

The two tourists who died were identified by police as Andrew Hardie, 47 and Jacklyn Timmons from Yeovil in southern England. Both were killed when the garbage truck hit them while they were walking on the sidewalk at 42 West 35th Street in Manhattan.

According to the story in the Times, police investigators filed charges against Scarlett, because he was not taking medication prescribed to him to prevent seizures. The police said that Mr. Scarlett?s truck, owned by Action Carting Environmental Services of Newark, New Jersey, was traveling west, and struck lamp posts and storefronts before striking three people. The third person hit, also on the sidewalk, was identified by police as Abayomi Henderson, 23, of Queens. Mr. Henderson was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he was in serious condition, the police said last Wednesday.

Full post as published by New York Injury Talk Blog on February 09, 2008 (boomark / email).