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Driver To Blame In Union City Truck Crash That Closed Lincoln Tunnel: Prosecutor

A garbage truck crashed onto Route 495 West in Union City earlier this summer because the driver hit the gas instead of the brake, investigators from the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office said Thursday. 

The truck went off the Palisade Avenue overpass and landed nose-first on Route 495 in Weehawken.

The truck went off the Palisade Avenue overpass and landed nose-first on Route 495 in Weehawken.

Photo Credit: DAILY VOICE photo

Eulalio Diaz, 53, was at the wheel of the Union City DPW truck July 3 when it was involved in a collision at 30th Street and Palisade Avenue. Diaz's truck was traveling east when it hit a Honda Odyssey, sending it crashing into another car, the prosecutor's office said. 

Diaz continued east and hit another vehicle, sending that crashing into yet another car, a Nissan Murano, before hopping a curb, crossing a median and crashing through a light pole and a decorative clock. The truck continued to trundle down 30th before crossing Palisade Avenue, surmounting another curb and plowing through a fence barrier, then dropping several feet onto westbound 495. 

A bus and another car traveling on 495 when the dump truck came crashing down were damaged by falling debris, the prosecutor's office also said. 

The crash blocked traffic coming out of the Lincoln Tunnel for hours on the eve of the July 4th holiday. A dozen people were injured. 

Diaz has not been charged or issued summonses, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said. It was not immediately known if any charges would be filed. 

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