From 2023 through 2025, a garbage truck was the first vehicle listed in 656 police-reported crashes in New York City. Those crashes injured 226 people and killed 6.
That is 0.2% of all crashes in the city in the same years. There were 34 injuries for every 100 crashes in these crashes, below the citywide rate of 58.
Crashes by year
In 2025 there were 229 crashes involving this vehicle type, up 9.6% from 2024. That is 37% fewer than in 2019; crash counts across the city fell sharply in 2020 and have stayed lower since. So far in 2026 (through October 31, 2026), 98 crashes have been recorded.
| Year | Crashes | Injured | Killed | Pedestrians injured | Cyclists injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (so far) | 98 | 15 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 2025 | 229 | 78 | 2 | 16 | 2 |
| 2024 | 209 | 54 | 2 | 5 | 6 |
| 2023 | 211 | 88 | 2 | 6 | 7 |
| 2022 | 223 | 86 | 3 | 12 | 4 |
| 2021 | 207 | 62 | 1 | 9 | 6 |
| 2020 | 195 | 47 | 0 | 8 | 5 |
| 2019 | 363 | 63 | 2 | 8 | 3 |
| 2018 | 393 | 67 | 3 | 8 | 4 |
| 2017 | 374 | 81 | 2 | 6 | 2 |
| 2016 | 279 | 53 | 0 | 9 | 5 |
| 2015 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2013 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Who gets hurt
Of the people injured in these crashes, 13% were pedestrians, 6.8% cyclists and 80% drivers or passengers. Pedestrians were 80% of the 5 people killed.
| Road user | Injured | Share of injured | Killed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pedestrians | 29 | 13% | 4 |
| Cyclists | 15 | 6.8% | 0 |
| Motorists (drivers and passengers) | 176 | 80% | 1 |
Most common causes
Police named a specific contributing factor in 66% of crashes involving a garbage truck. The most common was Driver Inattention/Distraction (36% of crashes with a known factor), followed by passing or lane usage improper and passing too closely.
By borough
How to read these figures
Each figure counts crashes that an NYPD officer reported on the MV-104AN form, which is required when someone is injured or killed or when damage reaches $1,000. One crash can injure several people, so injuries can exceed crashes.
Police do not record the borough or ZIP code for every crash — about 23% of crashes citywide in the same years have no borough — so local totals are a floor, not an exact count. The contributing factor is the one listed for the first vehicle in the report.
Vehicle types are written on the report in many different ways. We group them into broad categories, so a few crashes may sit in a neighboring category. Only the first vehicle listed in each report is used here.
Source: NYPD crash reports published by NYC Open Data (Motor Vehicle Collisions – Crashes). Data through October 31, 2026. Figures are preliminary and may change. How we calculate these figures.