Since 2010, 43 New Yorkers died after being hit by a garbage truck operated by a private company. In New York, the Business Integrity Commission (BIC) is in charge of overseeing this industry but it’s clear that the City needs more authority to impose safety standards.
The BIC was created 20 years ago with the main purpose to run background checks to root out potential mob ties, however, the commission doesn’t have the legal power to impose safety standards for privately owned garbage trucks.
Recently, members of the Commission appeared in a hearing about the private trash hauling industry in front of the New York City Council. BIC Chair, Dan Brownell asked the Council to provide BIC with more authority so that the Commission has the legal power to enforce safety protocols.
Private garbage trucks have much deadlier track records than those from the Department of Sanitation (DOS). This is mainly because drivers working for private trash haulers have to cover a larger geographic area while DOS drivers have a much shorter route and cover only a small geographic area.
Private hauling companies collect garbage generated by offices, restaurants, retailers, and other businesses. All told there are 7,800 trucks in the industry’s fleet.
In the nine years Orrette Ewen worked for Sanitation Salvage Corp., a Bronx-based private hauling company, he was regularly forced to work 16-hour shifts, making up to 1,000 stops a night. “It’s scary,” he said, following a City Council hearing about the private trash hauling industry. “It’s a scary situation knowing you could hurt someone.”
BIC doesn’t have the legal power to restrict the number of hours per driver, to impose safety training or to require side-guards which prevent pedestrians or cyclists to be run over by a truck’s rear wheel. The Commission has so little power that it is unable to even mandate the suspension of a driver who killed someone.
City Council Member Antonio Reynoso, who chairs the Sanitation Committee, said BIC has to do better and that its safety symposiums and email blasts amount to a “dog and pony show.” “People are dying, things aren’t safe,” he said. Reynoso said the council would consider expanding BIC’s safety oversight powers. He also noted that the city’s proposed zone collection system for private carters would cut down on truck traffic and make routes simpler, leading to safer streets, but that implementation is slated to take about six years.
It is clear the the City must act to gain control over privately owned garbage trucks and cut down on the risk of injury for New Yorkers.