UPDATE (December 29, 2025): Recent reports have been released which identify the woman who lost her life as a result of this accident as 75-year-old Li Liang. She had apparently been standing beneath the building’s scaffolding when it collapsed due to the collision. No additional details are currently available. The investigation is currently ongoing.
East Harlem, Manhattan, NY — December 23, 2025, a woman was killed and three other people were injured due to a garbage truck accident at about 6:30 a.m. on 101st Street.
According to authorities, a two people were traveling in a garbage truck owned by a recycling company on 101st Street in the vicinity of the 1st Avenue intersection when the accident took place.
Officials indicate that, for as yet unknown reasons, the garbage truck allegedly lost control, colliding with several cars—including a Kia Forte that had been parked in the area—before going up on the curb, crashing into some building scaffolding, and finally coming to a stop.
A woman who had been on foot in the area had apparently been struck by the truck at some point during the accident. She reportedly suffered fatal injuries and was declared deceased at the scene. Three others—two of which were the people who were in the truck—sustained minor injuries; they were taken to local medical facilities by EMS in order to receive necessary treatment.
Additional details pertaining to this incident—including the identities of the victims—are not available at this point in time. The investigation is currently ongoing.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
When a garbage truck careens across city streets, hits parked cars, mounts a curb, and ultimately brings down scaffolding that kills a pedestrian, the question isn’t just what caused the loss of control—it’s how many points of failure had to occur for this to be possible in the first place. Whether it was a mechanical malfunction, driver error, or a combination of both, this crash appears to be a clear breakdown of basic safety in one of the most densely populated areas in the country.
With confirmation that the victim, Li Liang, was standing beneath the scaffolding at the time it collapsed, we’re now looking at a scenario where a pedestrian—minding her own business, on the sidewalk—was fatally injured due to a chain of events set in motion by a commercial vehicle. That raises urgent questions about vehicle speed, driver control, and whether the truck should have been operating in that condition on a city street at all.
From a legal standpoint, the company that owned and dispatched the garbage truck is going to be a central focus. Did they conduct regular inspections? Was the driver properly trained and cleared to operate a heavy commercial vehicle in narrow, high-risk urban corridors? If this was a mechanical issue, investigators will be looking at the maintenance logs. If it was a driver error, the question becomes whether the company overlooked red flags in the driver’s history or failed to monitor their performance.
Equally important is the physical design of the route. Garbage trucks operating in Manhattan aren’t just large—they’re maneuvering through tight spaces, around pedestrians, cyclists, and parked cars, often in low-visibility morning conditions. If the company failed to plan for these challenges or ignored known risk factors in the area—like sidewalk obstructions, scaffolding, or limited curb clearance—they may bear responsibility for a preventable outcome.
In past cases I’ve handled involving crashes near scaffolding or construction zones, we’ve seen how infrastructure can turn deadly when struck with enough force. But that doesn’t make it a fluke. The core question remains: Why was that truck out of control in the first place—and what could have been done to stop it before it reached the sidewalk?
Key Takeaways:
- A loss-of-control crash that ends with a pedestrian fatality points to possible failure in driver conduct, vehicle condition, or both.
- The fact that the truck struck scaffolding hard enough to cause it to collapse suggests a high-speed or uncontrolled impact.
- The company that owns the truck may be liable if it failed to inspect the vehicle, train the driver, or plan the route appropriately.
- Investigators will rely on dash cam footage, black box data, and maintenance records to determine the root cause.
- Pedestrians should not face fatal risk from commercial vehicles while standing on a sidewalk—yet this case shows how company-level safety failures can make that risk very real.
call us 
Email Us 
Text us