A sanitation truck driver with a stellar safety record struck and killed his partner during their Monday morning run in Woodbridge.
“[He had] no accidents, no injuries over three years, which is not easy to do,” American Disposal Services safety manager Greg Hubbell said.
Dale City resident Rodrigo Jaime Hernandez, a 23-year-old father of three young children, was behind the trash truck when he was struck and killed about 9:35 a.m. at Herons Run Lane and Express Drive, Prince William County police spokeswoman Erika Hernandez said.
Police Sgt. Martin Douglas said the worker had waved the driver to pull back and then attempted to hop on the truck. According to Douglas, the man slipped and fell and the driver backed over him.
No charges have been filed against the driver, a 34-year-old Stafford County resident with more than a decade in the business, said Hubbell. Hernandez had been employed by the Manassas-based company for 14 months.
Hernandez leaves behind a wife and three children, ages 5, 4 and 1. Hernandez’s brother-in-law identified the body on the scene.
“He’s a part of the family and everybody is saddened by it,” Hubbell said. “It was an unfortunate accident.”
Police had the area cordoned off for several hours Monday morning. Police investigators interviewed company employees as police chaplain the Rev. Michael J. Dobbins said a prayer and blessed the victim’s body at the accident scene.
Shortly after the accident, the driver paced back and forth, speaking on his cell phone while fellow employees attempted to console him.
Hubbell said there is no one common reason for injuries or death in garbage collection. However, he did say that the company has a policy that collectors should be on the ground when a truck is in reverse and not on the back of the truck.
As of late Monday, Hubbell had not spoken to the driver about the accident.
Garbage collection is known as a dangerous business. But according to a recent report by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics on the National Solid Wastes Management Association Web site, the number of fatalities in the business declined from 37 in 2006 to 18 in 2007.
Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-878-8062.
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