Trash Truck Hits Pedestrians, Killing 1

An 85-year-old man was fatally injured and his 78-year-old neighbor critically hurt Tuesday when they were hit by a trash truck while crossing the street during a morning walk.

Bernard E. Hagen died during surgery at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he was airlifted after the 10:45 a.m. accident.

His neighbor, Faith L. Garman, was taken by ambulance to the same hospital, where she underwent surgery. She was in critical condition in the intensive care unit, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The truck, owned by Waste Management of Orange County, was backing up at the intersection of Lago Norte and San Joaquin, inside the private housing development of Rancho San Joaquin, when the accident occurred.

The driver was backing down the street after making a trash pickup because the street was too narrow for him to turn the truck around, Irvine Police Officer Richard Worcester said. He refused to release the driver’s name pending further investigation.

“He swung the truck so that the rear went onto San Joaquin, and at that time he struck the two pedestrians as they were crossing the street,” Worcester said. “They were walking just outside of the crosswalk, and witnesses said they didn’t see the truck coming.”

The truck’s warning alarm, which is activated when the vehicle backs up, was functioning correctly, Worcester said.

Both Hagen and Garman, who live a quarter of a mile from the accident scene, were pinned beneath the truck and freed by the driver, who radioed for help. Both were conscious after the accident and able to discuss it with police.

Police have been unable to determine how fast the truck was moving or the cause of the accident. The driver was not cited, Worcester said.

Officials at Waste Management of Orange County could not be reached for comment.

“For something like this to happen on a surface street is pretty rare,” Worcester said. “I can’t think of a time in the last 17 years that I’ve been here that a trash truck has hit a pedestrian in Irvine.”

Similar deaths have occurred in Orange County before.

In 1988, an 82-year-old Orange woman was killed when she was hit by a trash truck as she walked outside her mobile home. The driver was maneuvering to park the truck when the woman was hit.

Police are asking any witnesses to Tuesday’s accident to call investigator Keith Milledge of the Irvine Police Department at (714) 724-7036.