A tipster sent in the video of a garbage truck going through a light at the intersection of 97th street and West End, where 9-year-old Cooper Stock was killed last year. That intersection has a delayed red, meant to give pedestrians extra time to cross before cars can go — in the video you can see that both lights are red when the truck rides through the intersection.
In this case there weren’t people around, but our tipster says this has become a consistent problem on the avenue.
“Every time I see garbage trucks on west end avenue, they blow through red lights. They seem to be in a hurry to finish their routes.”
You should see the M96 and the M106 plow through this intersection, several times a day!
Let’s please not forget the valiant efforts of M66 and M57 drivers to cut across multiple lanes without consideration to other vehicles, cyclists, or pedestrians, and to blithely disregard lights/crosswalks. They seemingly didn’t get that whole Vision Zero memo either.
Haven’t you heard the TWU wants to exempt city bus drivers?
I thought that only referred to ‘arrests (handcuffed) on the spot’.
Just was on the M5 whose driver nearly hit a pedestrian on the right turn 72nd/B’way.
I just watched the video in full screen. Its hard to see but this is a seven second video. You should watch the signal light hanging right over the truck. The truck is moving south on wea crossing 97th street. The light above it is facing drivers coming west bound on 97th street on to wea and/or heading to RSD. The truck starts to move with a green light and only at 6 plus seconds of this 7 second video does the light change to red. That is when you see the light for traffic on 97th street, right over the truck, turn green for them. But by the time the light changes the truck is already completely across the intersection and picking up the litter basket on the southwest corner of the intersection.
it amazes me how someone can watch that video and say the garbage truck did not go through a red light.
Er, no, the light is red the whole time.
Hmm, it certainly appears that the light that the truck is driving through is red for the entire video. WSR
And cue the “Bikes do this too” comments in 3….2….1….
Ok so what ACTION can we take on this besides complaining on a message board? A little boy was KILLED there and these clowns still disregard lights. Report to the police? Get them ticketed so they feel the $$ repercussions?
Let me fix your headline:
Public servants safely proceed through red lights, endangering nobody.
Completely agree – no issue with city trucks proceeding slowly through a red light to more efficiently complete their jobs.
man bites dog
The NYCHA garbage crews servicing the Douglass Houses drive on the sidewalks of Amsterdam Ave, and not slowly either. Those dudes are freaking reckless.
This video is incomplete. When it starts the truck is already fully in the intersection. So it doesn’t show the color of the light when the truck started entering. Therefore it shows nothing.
I watched a sanitation truck go through a solid red light like this at 75th and Broadway on Wednesday morning. Then the same truck was practically flying up Amsterdam. Don’t know if it’s the same driver.
They don’t care. No one cares.
Respectfully disagree. Some are deep in denial, but most of us care.
I’ve got a ton of respect for the important, all-weather, physically demanding job these guys do! But the city is liable for mistakes these DSNY workers make.
Just sit on the bench in the middle of Broadway and watch the M87 buses routinely turn onto 87th against the light. It doesn’t matter that there are people, children, dogs crossing with the light going to or coming from the subway. I was with a friend having coffee one day and saw 5 buses out of 6 do that. I wrote the bus numbers down and noted the time and reported it to the MTA, and they responded that they took the report seriously, but nothing’s changed and probably won’t until several people get killed.
So true. You can be walking across 87th with the walk light and bus drivers will barrel right at you.
Same thing for southbound Broadway traffic turning left on to 88th street. At least at 86th there is a sign COMPLETE LEFT TURN WHEN LIGHT CHANGES TO GREEN, which seems to discourage that baloney.
I believe that you mean the M86 bus, which the DOT, MTA etc pushed to make a “select bus” line. They put it through by claiming that “route completion times” would be and/or have been improved by 22%. As with anything DOT presents you should look VERY carefully at their numbers, but more importantly how they came by them. The before and after numbers do not use the same data matrix. The bus permanently no longer services WEA & 87th street, the last stop is B’way & 86. The 2nd stop was also recently “temporally” clsd again. The after numbers are for a shorter route with fewer stops. It will be interesting to see the numbers they come up with for Amsterdam in Spet/Oct.
There are consistently empty MTA buses as well as tour buses illegally traveling on West End Ave.
I cann or believe that no one has blasted the postal service trucks that barrel around without regard for traffic lights or new posted speed limits. Guess they feel exempt. The only vehicles that can go through red lights are emergency vehicles with sirens and lights. Police, fire dept and ambulances. End of story.
Drivers of government vehicles operate them as if they are exempt from all traffic laws. Garbage trucks are temporarily parking sideways at an angle so the workers have easier access to toss garbage into the truck, but are blocking traffic so no vehicles can get around them. I saw a garbage truck make a wide right turn from the left lane of Broadway onto West 73 Street, only to back up into the middle of Broadway to empty trash from the subway station. The list goes on – police parked by hydrants while they order food in a bodega, you name it, and someone has seen it. But what can we do about it, besides bitch online right here?
USPS trucks are also habitual offenders. Very aggressive drivers, always blowing their loud horn, and running lights.