A Queens crash that killed a 50-year-old livery driver may have been set in motion by snow and ice that was improperly cleared by a city sanitation worker from the shoulder into a lane of the Long Island Expressway, according to police and city government sources said.
NYPD investigators notified Department of Sanitation officials of the dangerous conditions after the death of 50-year-old Carlos Asitimbay in a 4:30 a.m. crash on Feb. 6, the sources said.
A tractor-trailer slammed into Asitimbay’s Toyota Camry after Asitimbay lost control on the westbound Long Island Expressway near the exit to the Van Wyck Expressway.
Less than two hours before the crash, the operator of a city sanitation vehicle pushed snow and ice from the shoulder into the right lane, creating a hazardous road condition that caused at least one other fender bender before Asitimbay was killed, the sources said.
Sanitation workers typically move some snow and ice into traffic lanes on local streets in order to break it up and allow it to melt — but those protocols are prohibited on highways, where drivers operate at much faster speeds. Asitimbay was killed in a 50-mph zone.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Police investigate after livery driver Carlos Asitimbay, 50, was killed in a crash with a tractor-trailer on the Long Island Expressway in Queens on Feb. 6. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Asitimbay skidded out, lost control of his car and crashed into the center median before coming to a rest back in the right lane, the Camry perpendicular to traffic, cops said.
Moments later, a tractor trailer whose 52-year-old driver had swerved to avoid hitting another vehicle slammed into the passenger side of the Astimbay’s Camry.
Asitimbay, who suffered severe head and body trauma, was rushed by medics to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Queens but could not be saved. The tractor trailer driver suffered minor injuries. He was not charged or issued any summonses.
The victim’s brother-in-law happened upon the scene of the fatal crash, realized what had happened and asked police why there was so much snow in the right lane, according to a law enforcement source.
The city has been criticized for not doing a better job of snow removal during the cold snap following a storm that blanketed the city with up to a foot of snow on Jan. 25. Sanitation officials will be questioned next Monday at a City Council hearing.
Fernando Mateo, head of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, said the advocacy group has been in touch with the brother-in-law about what he saw.
“If that is true then this was not just negligence — it was reckless failure that created dangerous conditions on a major expressway,” Mateo said of the improper snow clearing. “This tragedy could have been prevented.”
“The [federation] will not back down until there is full transparency, responsibility and justice,” he added.
Vincent Gragani, a sanitation spokesman, confirmed that the agency clears snow and ice from all highways in the city but would not comment on the incident.
A relative of Asitimbay told the Daily News the victim was from Ecuador and “was a hard-working conscientious family man.” Although the victim did not have a passenger when he crashed, Asitimbay’s family said he was workin at the time.
“There’s an investigation going on,” the relative said of the crash. “It’s an active investigation.”
Asitimbay enjoyed watching history documentaries in his free time, the relative said.
“There is an NYPD investigation underway, as there always is after a fatal vehicle collision, and we won’t be commenting until that investigation concludes,” Sam Raskin, a spokesperson for the mayor, said in a statement.
With Emma Seiwell
