Unoccupied garbage truck barrels backwards down Oakland hill

YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST: No one was injured when a runaway garbage truck barreled backwards down a hill in Oakland, hitting a utility pole and a pickup truck, before crossing Route 202 and slamming into a tree in a private driveway.

Photo Credit: *CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Boyd A. Loving*

Jerry DeMarco

10/24/2014 7:43 p.m.

Workers were collecting trash when the loaded Suburban Carting truck rolled backward down Minnehaha Boulevard across Ramapo Valley Road just after 10:30 a.m.

The impact forced the 2010 Ford F-250, with two male passengers from Bloomingdale, off the road, the driver told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. Neither was injured.

The garbage truck, meanwhile, came to rest against a tree in the driveway of a single-family home.

Route 202 remained closed in both directions into the afternoon as a heavy-duty wrecker removed the garbage truck. The pickup was towed on a flatbed.

A Bergen County Hazardous Materials Unit was at the scene to attend to a diesel fuel spill from the garbage truck.

Workers from Rockland Electric were also restoring power that was knocked out to some area homes and businesses.

Also responding were Oakland and Bergen County police and Oakland and Mahwah firefighters.

Oakland Police Lt. Christian Eldridge said the garbage truck driver told officers that he engaged the air brake before getting out. Next thing he knew, it was rolling down the hill.

An investigation was continuing, Eldridge said.

STORY/PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Boyd A. Loving

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