Date: August 15, 2006
Source: NSWMA
National Garbage Hauler Association Promotes Public Motorist Safety
The National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) is outraged that motorists are running into trash collection employees. In the first six months of 2006, solid waste employees have been killed or seriously injured by motorists in Pennsylvania, New York, California, and elsewhere. These accidents typically occur when motorists run into trash collectors while they are on the street collecting residential waste. Some of these accidents occur because the motorist is distracted or driving too quickly.
NSWMA welcomes efforts to curb poor motorist behavior by Columbiana County, Ohio, which is prosecuting a driver for aggravated vehicular homicide in connection with the death of a municipal sanitation employee on July 14. In that incident, the driver struck a worker while he was loading a residential collection vehicle in East Liverpool. According to the indictment, the driver was allegedly intoxicated at the time of the accident. If convicted, the driver faces up to eight years in prison and a suspended driver's license.
According to NSWMA's President and CEO Bruce Parker, "A disturbing number of fatalities to solid waste employees occur because motorists are distracted in their car or speed up to get around sanitation trucks on the street." He added, "The general public needs to do a better job of treating solid waste collectors like a mobile work zone and proceed very cautiously every time they are close to a garbage truck."
In 2005, Rumpke Consolidated Companies (Cincinnati, Ohio), McNeilus Truck & Manufacturing, Inc. (Dodge Center, Minn.), and NSWMA joined together to create the Slow Down to Get Around program, in response to two accidents in a five week period involving motorists striking Rumpke employees in southern Ohio. Rumpke's Director of Safety Larry Stone noted, "We developed this program to help protect our hard-working employees from bad drivers." Since the program started, a number of local governments and waste haulers throughout the United States have incorporated the program into their overall safety program.
NSWMA is the non-profit trade association representing for-profit companies providing solid and medical waste collection, recycling, and disposal services throughout North America.
Contact:
David Biderman
NSWMA
202-364-3743
davidb@envasns.org.
For more information, visit: www.envasns.org.
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