Inset: Tyrah Adams (WDRB/YouTube). Background: A photo of a Louisville, Ky., garbage truck’s hydraulic arm and claw (WHAS/YouTube).
Kentucky garbage workers were caught on video laughing and “mocking” a homeless woman after she was picked up with a hydraulic trash claw and dumped in an alley, according to her family. The woman died after suffering severe blunt force and compressional trauma.
“S— man, I done f—ed around man, and d— near haha [laughing], d— near picked up a homeless motherf—er over here in a pile,” one of the workers can be heard saying, according to Tyrah Adams’ family members and attorney Stephanie Rivas, who is representing them in a lawsuit against the city of Louisville, local ABC affiliate WHAS reported.
“Oh, damn. Where you was at?” a manager responds.
The worker, who was driving that day in February, and another employee riding in the passenger seat both laugh after the question was asked, according to Adams’ family.
“They’re mocking the situation,” Adams’ sister, Sandra Akers, told WHAS this week. “They thought it was funny.”
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Adams’ family claims in the lawsuit that the workers’ hydraulic truck claw picked up the 35-year-old and compressed her body, and then the workers dumped the woman in an alley without following proper safety protocols.
“[Louisville Metro] knew or should have known that homeless individuals and vulnerable person(s) occupied alleys, debris piles, and cleanup locations targeted during Public Works operations,” the legal complaint states, according to Louisville Public Media.
Adams’ family says she was killed by a Louisville Metro garbage truck that scooped her up while she was lying in a cardboard box near an area surrounded by trash. They have accused the city and sanitation workers of “gross negligence” and “reckless conduct” that ultimately led to Adams’ wrongful death.
More specifically, the complaint alleges that the two unnamed workers failed to follow the city’s written safety practices for operating the truck’s hydraulic claw, also known as a knuckle boom.
“They physically picked her up with that claw, squeezed her, compressed her, and dropped her,” Rivas told NBC affiliate WSMV in April before filing their lawsuit.
“[The workers] left her there to find her own help,” Rivas said.
According to the complaint, Adams had to shuffle her battered body to a nearby J&M Food Mart while suffering from fatal and “catastrophic” injuries. A store clerk called 911 after Adams stumbled in, screaming for help.
One of the workers can be seen walking over to the front of the store five minutes later. He claimed he was checking to make sure someone had called 911.
“If somebody would have just told what had happened. I’m sure there would have been two ambulances that would have showed up,” Akers told WHAS.
It wasn’t until nearly 30 minutes after Adams was allegedly picked up by the claw that an ambulance arrived on scene.
Adams “coded” in the ambulance and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
“Seeing my own sister being treated like that, in that claw — that’s horrifying,” Akers said.
“Once she got up, why didn’t they jump out of the truck and go to her?” Rivas asked.
According to the family’s complaint, Adams was “turning colors no white woman should be” after going inside the nearby store. AÂ coroner’s report stated she succumbed to severe blunt force and compressional trauma.
The city and sanitation workers are accused of breaching a duty of care to Adams by “failing to maintain a proper lookout, failing to inspect the work area, failing to keep personnel clear of the operation zone, failing to use proper spotting procedures, failing to supervise employees, failing to enforce safety procedures, and otherwise failing to exercise reasonable care,” according to the complaint.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg reportedly released a statement after the incident saying garbage crews were cleaning the alley when the truck accidentally picked up Adams. Greenberg said the workers did not see her.
A spokesperson for Greenberg told the Courier Journal his office’s “thoughts and condolences remain with the victim’s family.” They declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The post Garbage workers picked up and ‘squeezed’ woman with truck claw, then dumped her to die and laughed instead of calling for help: Family first appeared on Law & Crime.
