LANSING, MI — One person was hurt in an accident with a garbage truck in Lansing, Michigan on Wednesday, January 14th, 2014. The news article said that the accident happened sometime Wednesday morning.
Authorities said that one person was taken to the hospital when they were struck by a garbage truck collided for reasons currently under investigation on Burneway Drive. Police said that the garbage truck was backing out of a driveway when it struck the woman on the sidewalk.
The woman was taken by EMS to a nearby hospital where she was last reported in critical condition.
The investigation is currently ongoing at this time.
Scene of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary:
I’ve read several articles about this accident, and still, for the life of me, I cannot figure out how it happened. First of all, garbage trucks are rarely, if ever, operated by one person. That means that both the driver, and the entire crew of the garbage truck had to fail to see this woman, if indeed there were other crew members aboard the truck. Now, even if there were no other crew members on the truck, you know what it is sure to have? Mirrors. These large trucks’ have areas surrounding them that are completely blind to the driver, so mirrors, often several different kinds, are mounted so the driver can see behind him. Was the driver not using the mirrors? Would a turn of the head looking over the shoulder prevented this accident? Something tells me so.
On another note, whoever is operating the truck is going to have a big bearing on how this is handled. If this is a government vehicle, then there is going to be a hundred miles of additional red tape to cut through thanks to all the difficulties set up on the path to bringing a claim against city or state entities. Conversely, if the vehicle is run by a private company
