Reports of Garbage Truck Problems Called Routine

Los Angeles city officials said Monday that alarming reports released earlier this month regarding failures of garbage trucks in surprise inspections and alleged widespread equipment abuse by drivers are simply routine updates that have helped the city increase efficiency and safety in refuse collection.

Testifying before the City Council’s Environmental Quality and Waste Management Committee, Drew Sones of the Bureau of Sanitation said that while a nine-month review of the surprise inspections showed an average failure rate of 27%, that rate now hovers around 15%. The inspections also have led to retraining for drivers on when to seek repairs.

Sones, assistant director of the Bureau of Sanitation, said it probably was a misnomer to call the problems found by mechanics “driver abuse,” since the mechanics did not necessarily know how the problems had originated and because the problems were more likely to have been caused by the drivers’ neglect in reporting problems.

Reports of the failed inspections came to light after an accident Dec. 6 in which a trash truck malfunctioned, hitting a school bus and killing two 8-year-old boys. But Sones and others said Monday that the reports are unrelated to the tragedy.

“These are not reports that just came up and we were not aware of,” Sones said. “They were part of the quality control.”