The National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) is addressing what it sees as a growing epidemic of traffic accidents involving trash collection employees. In a press release, the organization notes that in the first six months of 2006, solid waste workers in Pennsylvania, New York and elsewhere have been killed or seriously injured by cars. Further, it praises Columbiana County, Ohio, which has brought charges of aggravated vehicular homicide against a driver who struck and killed a residential collection worker, allegedly while driving under the influence of alcohol.

“A disturbing number of fatalities to solid waste employees occur because motorists are distracted in their car or speed up to get around sanitation trucks on the street,” says NSWMA President and CEO Bruce Parker in the release. “The general public needs to do a better job of treating solid waste collectors like a mobile work zone and proceed very cautiously every time they are close to a garbage truck.”