A man riding a motorized wheelchair was struck and killed by a City of Rochester garbage truck Tuesday afternoon at the intersection of Hudson Avenue and Warsaw Street on the city's north side. Police said the truck was turning left from Warsaw Street onto Hudson Avenue when it hit the man, who was traveling northbound along the west shoulder of the road. He died at the scene around 3:30 p.m.
According to Hawaii News Now, the garbage truck was traveling eastbound on Warsaw Street at the time of the crash. Officers told reporters the truck driver, a man in his 50s, was not hurt, and police said they do not believe drugs or alcohol played a role. As reported by whec.com, officers had not released the identity of the man who died, and the investigation remained ongoing as of the following day.
Witnesses said the man's wheelchair ended up pinned beneath the front end of the truck. Carl Canty, who came upon the scene just minutes after the crash happened, described the wheelchair trapped under the vehicle and said the people gathered nearby appeared distraught. “It was just kind of devastating to drive by and see that, and think someone just probably left, went to the store, wherever. They’re not going to return home,” Canty said, adding that he also felt for the truck driver caught in the aftermath.
City Officials Pledge a Full Investigation
Rochester Mayor Malik Evans offered condolences to the victim and everyone affected by the crash, and said the city is committed to a thorough investigation into how it happened and how to prevent similar tragedies going forward. Police have not released a reconstruction of the crash or any determination of fault, and the case remains open.
The crash has reignited longstanding frustration from disability advocates over sidewalk conditions in Rochester. The Center for Disability Rights has said inaccessible sidewalks, parked cars, snow, and ice regularly force wheelchair users into the street, according to whec.com. The outlet reported that the city's own ADA right-of-way transition plan found that 92% of curb ramps in surveyed neighborhoods failed accessibility standards, with 220 intersections needing a curb ramp that had none installed at all.
Tens of Thousands of Barriers Citywide
The same survey, detailed by 13WHAM, identified nearly 65,965 accessibility barriers across 220 miles of sidewalk citywide, including close to 54,000 uneven sidewalk joints and almost 2,000 obstructions blocking paths of travel. The station reported that sidewalks near the Hudson Avenue and Warsaw Street crash site had been inspected and repaired earlier this year, and that curb ramps in the area were installed back in 2020. Bruce Darling, president of the Center for Disability Rights, said, per whec.com, that Rochester's broader plan to bring public rights-of-way into compliance currently projects completion 50 years into the future.
The city has recently taken steps to make crash data more visible to the public. Earlier in October, Rochester launched an online traffic safety dashboard displaying motor vehicle crash and fatality information, including collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists, according to WXXI News. The dashboard includes data from 2023 through the current month in filterable tables alongside an interactive map, part of the city's ongoing Vision Zero safety efforts.
A Similar Collision in Brooklyn
Rochester's crash echoes a separate incident in New York City, where a woman was struck and killed by a Department of Sanitation truck in Brooklyn as it made a right turn on Bay Parkway, according to ABC7 New York. In that case, the 30-year-old victim was crossing the street when she was hit; the truck operator remained at the scene, and no arrests had been made.
Back in Rochester, police have not said whether the truck driver involved in Tuesday's crash will face any citation or charges, and no procedural findings have been made public. The investigation into exactly how the collision unfolded continues, even as the man's name remains unreleased and advocates renew pressure on the city to speed up sidewalk fixes that, by its own numbers, could otherwise take decades to complete.
