BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — There are questions about how a City of Buffalo sanitation driver hit a 17-year-old Wednesday morning at 14th and Rhode Island Streets. The teen is still in critical condition.
Niagara District Council member David Rivera — whose district includes those streets — expressed concern about what happened.
"It's anger, frustration. How can it happen? What can we do to prevent that from happening," he said.
A city spokesperson said Department of Public Works Commissioner Nate Marton suspended the 46-year-old sanitation driver without pay pending further review of the incident. Buffalo Police confirmed that the driver had a suspended CDL license when the crash happened, but it was later reinstated that day.
One witness told 7 News that the garbage truck backed up at a high rate of speed.
"I'd like to go back to the various departments and find ways to make sure that everybody and anybody that works for the City of Buffalo has proper license," Rivera said. "It's something that internally we're going to have to address it's not the first time where an employee has had a suspended license."
Last summer, a Department of Public Works driver crashed into a business and building narrowly missing a little boy on Niagara and Austin streets.
Following the Niagara and Austin Streets crash, I obtained documents from the Buffalo Police Department through the Freedom of Information request.
Documents showed driver Vernon Harris was operating the truck with a revoked license because of insurance issues. He told police he was not drinking, taking any illegal drugs or using his phone while operating the city-owned vehicle.
A police report also stated that Harris began to "black out" while driving, causing him to crash.
I asked Rivera if he thinks there should be more oversight.
"You know we have a huge department. I don't know how many thousands of employees and we have to track that we have to do a better job of tracking that," Rivera replied.
I reached out to Marton about this. He told me by phone an internal investigation is underway to determine how the driver's license wasn't flagged and said there will be better oversight moving forward.
"But we want to make sure that we can prevent incidents such as reoccurring, most importantly is the safety of the public and so that is my primary concern," Rivera said.
