A speeding Mercedes-Benz driver died Friday after colliding with a private garbage hauler making a U-turn in a Brooklyn intersection, said police.
The collision is the latest fatal crash involving New York City’s private carting industry, which has been accused of running roughshod over the five boroughs as its trucks go from pick up to pick up.
The 54-year-old driver for Cogent Waste Solutions was making a U-turn in his 2018 Mack truck past the corner of Gerritsen and Florence Aves. in Gerritsen Beach about 12:30 a.m. when the Mercedes slammed into the big rig, cops said.
The Mercedes driver, identified by relatives as Patrick Donovan, 42, was rushed to Brookdale Medical Center, but he did not survive.
“He was a good brother. He was a great father,” Donovan’s brother Michael said Friday as he and his relatives lit candles and placed flowers at the scene of the crash.
Donovan, a machine operator, grew up in tightly-knit Gerritsen Beach. He had just moved back to the neighborhood when the fatal crash occurred, his brother said.
His death left a gaping hole in his extended family, which includes his parents, a 17-year-old son, three sisters, two brothers and a number of nieces and nephews.
“It hurts,” his brother Michael said. “This happened too soon. It’s still so surreal.”
Donovan’s son was also at the crash site, but too grief stricken to talk Friday.
Relatives remembered Donovan as a friendly, generous man who would “give the shirt off his back.”
“He enjoyed anything with a motor, really. He loved life,” the grieving brother said. “He liked everyone around him, [for his] family to be together.”
The Mercedes-Benz was traveling at a high rate of speed when it collided with the garbage truck, sources with knowledge of the case said.
The trash truck’s driver remained at the scene and did not immediately face any charges, cops said. An investigation into the crash was continuing.
Ara Chekmayan, a spokesman for Cogent, said that multiple witnesses told him that the Mercedes-Benz was speeding before it slammed the rear of the garbage truck.
“We are saddened by this tragic loss of life. We are fully cooperating with the investigation,” Chekmayan said.
Private haulers are expected to be given a new “zone system” run by the city which would limit the areas in which private companies can pick up trash in order to tamp down on crashes and vehicular fatalities.
The City Council authorized the new program in 2019 after private garbage truck drivers sparked a series of fatal crashes while driving long routes across the city. In an effort to boost profits, many trash haulers assigned crews to routes that cover wide areas and in some cases take more than 12 hours to complete.
The new program will split the city into 20 zones. The Sanitation Department will grant commercial trash-hauling rights in each zone to as many as three companies. Only the companies assigned by the Sanitation Department will be allowed to collect trash from businesses in their zones.
The zone system should be in place by the end of 2024, city officials said.
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