It was shortly after 9 p.m. on Aug. 8 when a private sanitation truck headed up East 169th Street in the Bronx and drove into oncoming traffic. The truck smashed head-on into a sedan, sending it 25 feet down the block and into another parked car, triggering the sedan’s airbags, according to the police report. The garbage truck wound up crashing into a second parked car before coming to a stop.

Bystanders began to gather. Someone called 911. A New York City Fire Department ambulance was dispatched, police records show.

Soon, a man emerged from the cab of the garbage truck. The vehicle belonged to Sanitation Salvage, one of the largest private trash haulers in the city, whose safety record and wider operations are being investigated. The man, it turns out, never should have been driving the truck.

“I don’t have a license,” the man said frantically.

Credit by- Pro Publica

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