THOUSAND OAKS : Trash Truck Driver Ran Over 2 Workers

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies said Thursday that the trash truck driver who ran over the foot of a co-worker this week--resulting in a partial leg amputation--was involved in a similar incident last month with another co-worker who also lost part of his leg.

Driver Jose Garcia, 35, of Oxnard is not suspected of wrongdoing in either incident, which Deputy John Popp said were caused by the assistants who were injured.

“There’s no recklessness on the part of the driver,” Popp said. “I think the new guys who are getting hired on are just not paying attention to the trucks.”

The driver and the two injured men worked for Valley Commercial Disposal Co. of Thousand Oaks. Representatives of the company could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Doctors late Monday were unable to save the lower left leg of Sacramento Vergara, 37, of Oxnard. Vergara’s foot was run over after he jumped off a running board on the side of a trash truck and got tangled in one of the wheels. The accident occurred at the Tuolumne Oaks condominium complex in Thousand Oaks.

Vergara’s right leg also was broken and required a rod mounted along the length of the femur bone, said Dr. John Larsen, who operated on him at Los Robles Regional Medical Center.

Popp said Garcia also ran over the foot of a worker running alongside his truck last month in the Ventu Estates Mobile Home Park in Thousand Oaks, requiring the amputation of one of his legs from the knee down. He said that, like Vergara, the worker only had been on the job for about a week.