Investigations are ongoing into a Williamsburg truck crash that saw a dump truck driver with a suspended license illegally travel down a street before striking a cyclist. The cyclist sustained critical injuries, but survived.
Truck accidents involving cyclists and pedestrians have been sadly common in both New York and New Jersey in recent weeks, with similar incidents occurring across various counties. The trend is widespread across the nation, with fatal truck accidents on the rise.
Cause of Suspended License Unknown in Williamsburg Truck Crash
October 3, 2017
Questions abound after a 31-year-old male cyclist was struck by a dump truck in Brooklyn while the truck drove down Bushwick Avenue, where commercial truck traffic is not allowed.
The accident occurred at approximately 2:30 p.m. as both the cyclist and dump truck traveled north on Bushwick Avenue. The cyclist was hit when the yellow dump truck, owned by L&Y Enterprises LLC, attempted a right turn onto Grand Street. A crowd gathered around the unconscious cyclist to assess his injuries.
“He was in a desperate state, trying to get to the curb,” Evan Makopoulos, co-owner of the nearby Grand Seafood and Fish Market said in an interview with DNAInfo. Makopoulos also said that the cyclist had his “legs twisted.”
Emergency responders transported the cyclist to Elmhurt Hospital, where he was ultimately transferred from the ER to ICU and regained consciousness, according to his roommate, 32-year-old John Miller.
Twenty-three-year-old Charles Carpenter was driving the dump truck. He was handcuffed at the scene and arrested for driving with a suspended license, though no information has been given as to why his license was suspended. The Williamsburg truck crash was further complicated by the fact that commercial trucks are not supposed to be on that section of Bushwick Avenue unless they are making local deliveries. Police have yet to state what reason, if any, Carpenter gave for driving in that area.
L&Y Enterprises, LLC, has not commented on the crash, but safety groups have begun calling for action. For over a year, transportation safety advocates have been asking for a redesign of Grand Street aimed at protecting cyclists and pedestrians. Since 2016, three pedestrians have died on the same street.
Princeton Woman Struck and Killed by Cement Truck
October 10, 2017
Sixty-two-year-old Leslie Goodrich Rubin, a Princeton woman, is dead after being hit by a cement truck at the intersection of Nassau Street and Washington Road, an intersection that has been called one of the most dangerous in Princeton, New Jersey.
Rubin was hit at approximately 4:47 p.m. as she crossed the street. She was struck by a 2017 Terex Advanced cement truck driven by 60-year-old Ralph Allen, a Tabernacle resident. He was turning onto Washington Road when the incident occurred. Emergency personnel attempted CPR on Rubin, but she was eventually pronounced dead at the scene.
Rubin’s husband is a visiting scholar at the James Madison Program at Princeton University. He and Rubin attended a lecture at the university earlier on the day of the accident. Professor Robert George, who teaches at Princeton University and had given the lecture the Rubins attended that day, spoke of her passing.
“Little did I know this would be the last time I would see her,” George said on social media, according to Planet Princeton. “This news is simply devastating, not only for Charlie, a person whom all of us in the Madison Program cherish and hold in the highest esteem, but for the entire Madison Program family. We are in shock.”
Investigations into the fatal accident are ongoing. Police ask anyone who saw the incident to contact Sergeant Thomas Murray with the Traffic Safety Bureau at 609-921-2100, ext. 1879.
16-Year-Old Killed in Union City Garbage Truck Crash
October 4, 2017
The Union City, New Jersey community is in mourning after 16-year-old Sean Lemus—who friends and family remember as a caring and humorous individual—was killed in a crash with a garbage truck while riding his bicycle.
Lemus was traveling by bicycle in the Palisade Avenue 31st Street area at around 7:00 p.m. when he was hit by a Union City Department of Public Works garbage truck. He was pronounced dead at the scene at approximately 7:45 p.m. Police continue to investigate the circumstances that led to the fatal collision.
The road was closed as officers worked to investigate the scene immediately following the crash, but two motorcycles ignored the closures and sped through the accident scene at what Union City Mayor Brian Stack described as a “high rate of speed” at approximately 9:00 p.m. One of the two motorcycles then hit three police offers who were working the investigation into the initial collision that killed Lemus.
One of the motorcyclists subsequently crashed and was taken to a nearby hospital, while the other motorcyclist fled the scene at about 100 miles per hour before being apprehended. All three police officers were taken to area hospitals, but were expected to survive their injuries.
“I couldn’t believe this happened,” Stack, who was standing nearby when the motorcycle struck the officers, said in a interview with NJ.com. “There was no way a car could get through. The only thing that could have gotten through was a motorcycle.”
Mourners gathered at Elim Church on October 5, 2017, to grieve and remember Lemus.
“He never complained and he was always helpful to his mother in church,” Joanna Hall, who attended Lemus’ church, said to NJ.com. “He was a role model for the little kids. They looked up to him. He was always smiling and very humble.”
