A scaffolding collapse that claimed the life of a 75-year-old woman in East Harlem was the end result of a freak chain-reaction crash that involved 10 vehicles, including a private sanitation truck that set the deadly events in motion, according to new details from the NYPD Wednesday.
The 2023 Peterbilt garbage truck belonging to New Jersey-based Classic Recycling was moving uptown on First Ave when it collided with an occupied BMW X5 double-parked near E. 101st St. around 6:25 a.m. Tuesday, cops said.
The collision thrust the BMW into a double-parked occupied Ford box truck, police said.
Meanwhile, the garbage truck went on to strike a double-parked unoccupied Kia Forte sedan, which became stuck in the truck’s grill and was shoved forward as the larger vehicle swerved left onto E. 101st St., cops said.
On E. 101st St., the two vehicles — now lodged together — battered into a Hyundai Palisade, setting off a chain reaction that resulted in an additional five vehicles being damaged: a Subaru Outback, a Mercedes-Benz C30, a Nissan Altima, a Toyota Corolla and a Jeep Renegade, all of which were parked and unoccupied, said police.
After colliding with the Hyundai, the garbage truck and the Kia Forte slammed into scaffolding erected around the Metro North Plaza housing complex — and into Li Ying Liang, a fifth-floor resident of the housing complex, who was under the scaffolding when the two vehicles jumped the curb, cops said.
“When her husband came downstairs to identify the body, they didn’t allow him to [see her body], because it was so gruesome,” Stanley Johnson, head of the Metro North Plaza Tenants Association, said after witnessing the aftermath. “She would be out here every morning with her shopping cart. And that’s how her husband knew that it was her.”
Liang moved into Metro North Plaza about decade ago, according to neighbors, who said her difficulty speaking English never stopped her from being involvd in the community.
“She was one of us. She was our neighbor. We saw her every day,” said 59-year-old Renee Tindal. “They [the couple] didn’t speak English, they spoke Cantonese, but anytime something was going on in the building, like no hot water, I would communicate with them and let them know what was happening. They were always involved. They were part of everything here.
“I always called her ‘little mama’ because she always spoke, ‘Hello, how are you?’ ‘Alright, baby, take care.’ She always greeted everyone.”
Liang’s family gathered at the site of the crash Tuesday, Tindal said.
“When the family came, it was very sad,” said Tindal. “They have adult children. A daughter and a granddaughter.”
“They were always by themselves, just [Liang] and her husband, together all the time. I worry more about him because the impact was heavy. He was still in shock.”
Neighbors recalled regularly seeing Liang tending to the plants and flowers growing around the building.
“Everyday she would get down at 6:30 a.m. to water the plants, do her stuff,” said 52-year-old Belitza Soto. “She was old but she kept the flowerbed really pretty in the summers. It was beautiful.”
The clash the killed Liang also sent five people to the hospital, including the garbage truck’s 47-year-old driver and 50-year-old passenger, the 47-year-old driver and 46-year-old passenger of the BMW and the 22-year-old driver of the box truck, who were all taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell in stable condition, cops said.
No charges were immediately filed as the cause of the crash is investigated.
Classic Recycling is “trying to determine the circumstances of this tragic accident,” Ken Fisher, a spokesman for the New Jersey-based company, said on Tuesday.
