Upstate NY garbage truck flings woman from bench; officials investigating (video)

Officials are investigating after video emerged of a woman being flung from a bench by a garbage truck in Upstate New York.

The Democratic & Chronicle reports a video recorded July 29 has recently gone viral, showing a woman sitting on a curbside bench on South Avenue in Rochester when a garbage truck pulls up. A mechanical arm on the truck extends to pick up a trash bin, but the hydraulic claw appears to accidentally grab the corner of the bench.

The bench is then lifted in the air, throwing the woman off the bench and onto the pavement.

The video shows a bystander alerting someone in the garbage truck, who steps out and approaches the woman. She has not been identified and it’s unclear if she was injured; she is wearing a lavender dress, but her face is never visible in the clip.

According to Spectrum News, city operations officials say the driver never reported the incident to his supervisors and retired shortly afterwards in a move that had been planned earlier.

Karen St. Aubin, operations director in the city environmental services department, told the D&C that they only became aware of it after a “citizen” gave them the video, which appears to be taken from a security camera outside a nearby convenience store. St. Aubin said they’re trying to track down the woman to find out if she was hurt.

“We really don’t know. I’ve seen the same video you’ve seen and we’re really trying to reach out to find her to see if she’s alright,” St. Aubin said. “So if somebody knows who she is, please contact us at 311.”

The video started gaining national attention Tuesday when popular Twitter user Rex Chapman shared it. The clip has been viewed more than 620,000 times as of Wednesday.

“Oops,” Chapman tweeted.

Officials are continuing to investigate.