Garbage truck’s dash video captured pedestrian moments before fatal collision, police say
A lot for Asheville's Public Works vehicles.
By Kimberly King
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ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — Asheville police say video footage from a camera mounted on a city garbage truck captured moments before a fatal collision that claimed the life of a pedestrian in her Town Mountain neighborhood.
Sally Wheeler, 74, died around 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, April 16, after a city garbage truck hit Wheeler in her Highland Gate neighborhood.
Asheville Police Deputy Chief Sean Aardema said the truck was traveling forward at a low rate of speed, under 10 miles per hour. He said, at this point, there’s no evidence anyone involved acted recklessly and emphasized the active investigation of Wednesday’s fatality involves interviews, wreck reconstruction, and ongoing review of video from the truck.
“The truck had stopped in the roadway and was actually in the action of emptying the garbage can into the truck,” Aardema said. “It has one of those automatic, robotic arms emptying the trash can.”
Aardema said he believes the can belonged to Wheeler.
“The collision took place almost immediately after that action occurred,” he said.
Aardema did not know the distance of the collision from Wheeler’s home on Highland Place. Asheville police confirmed Wednesday that Wheeler was struck in the street, and the truck driver immediately stopped and called 911.
“It appeared it was right in the middle of a row of three to four houses,” Aardema said. “We were able to recover video from the truck that showed a row of bins alongside the road. The truck was moving forward at the time of the collision.”
Aardema said the cameras are on the dash of the truck.
“The cameras are on the front of the truck, mounted above the windshield facing forward. The video depicts the truck traveling at a relatively slow speed — in my estimation, less than 10 miles an hour,” he said.
Aardema confirmed he’d reviewed the footage, saying the video is “very brief” and that Wheeler was in the video for a “very brief period of time.”
The driver is extremely upset about the collision, according to Aardema.
City attorney discusses procedures after fatal wreck
Asheville City Attorney Brad Branham confirmed that staff have handed over all garbage truck camera footage to police after a 74-year-old woman was struck and killed on Wednesday morning.
Branham explained the city’s protocol when an employee is involved in a serious collision leading to death.
“The first thing we do anytime a driver has an accident in a city vehicle, they go through mandatory testing for both drug and alcohol,” Branham said.
The city’s attorney said he’s been keeping city councilmembers informed on the investigation in real time.
“This was a standard route,” Branham said, describing the facts of the case. “This was something that we’re actively on these days, always picking up trash on this particular street.”
He provided information on the driver’s employment.
“He has been with the city for several years,” Branham said. “He’s been with the sanitation department for the majority of that, as far as I’m aware. I can tell you he’s been in this particular role for several years.”
Branham also provided more details on the cameras attached to city garbage trucks.
“The cameras are forward-facing cameras, so they are located in such a position to show what the driver’s essentially seeing,” he said.
In accordance with state laws, Branham said there are protocols city staff must follow as police continue their investigation and ultimately meet with the district attorney.
“We never ever want something like this to happen,” said Branham. “We take great steps to make sure that all of our employees are trained, we have protocols in place, safety systems, and even when you do something right, something can happen. These vehicles on the road every single day, doing very tough jobs, and from time to time something may happen. If that occurs as it has here, it’s our job to make sure we review the situation very carefully to determine what steps need to be taken to deal with that, address it to improve our safety record going forward.”
Branham, who’s served as Asheville City attorney for more than three years, said the city has not had any other pedestrian fatalities involving a city garbage truck in recent years.
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