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[UPDATE] Lucky Break For Truck Driver Who Sent Debris Raining Down Outside Grand Central
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Aug 1, 2012
Modified Aug 2, 2012
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Aug 1, 2012
Modified Aug 2, 2012
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[UPDATE BELOW] The truck driver who drove up a "Passenger Cars Only" ramp on Park Avenue at Grand Central yesterday, causing a hail of concrete to fall down on one of the most pedestrian-choked places in the city likely just received a traffic citation. "It was tight," 42-year-old driver Joe Hebert told the Post, which is the word one might use if your truck didn't hit a concrete barrier, almost killing or maiming a bunch of people. "I got turned around and went the wrong way," Hebert added to the Daily News. "I was trying to get out of the city."
FDNY spokesmen confirmed that somehow no one was injured by the falling debris. Hebert, who was hauling municipal waste from Babylon, Long Island to Amsterdam, Ohio with his wife and his dog, claims that he never saw the sign prohibiting his vehicle from entering the roadway. Trying to make a hard right turn, Hebert caused his truck to send the concrete flying, and popped off one of his own wheels. A tipster yesterday described the incident as sounding "like a bomb," and described the panic that briefly gripped the area around Park and 42nd Street.
An NYPD spokesperson could not immediately confirm whether Hebert received a traffic citation, but the Post reports that "Traffic agents said the three of them [Hebert, his wife, and dog] would be able to get back on the road that day as he would only be charged with a traffic violation."
[UPDATE] A NYPD spokesperson has told us that the driver received five traffic summonses, including driving on an off-truck route, excessive width, and unsecured cargo.
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Park avenue
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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