A driver for a private garbage trucking company was charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Police say that Auvryn Scarlett lost control of his truck on West 35th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues Tuesday night, fatally hitting a couple and injuring a man; they believe Scarlett had a seizure and note he recently stopped taking his seizure medication.
A passenger with Scarlett, who worked for Action Carting of Newark, NJ, told the police, per the NY Times, started to "[behave] erratically and began to foam at the mouth." The passenger tried to gain control of the steering wheel, but couldn't stop the truck from jumping the curb, barreling down the street, and hitting lamp posts, signs, the pedestrians and finally a storefront.
The slain couple were British tourists Jacklyn Timmons and Andrew Hardie of Yeovil, Somerset. They had been staying at the Comfort Inn nearby. A police spokeswoman told the Daily Mail, "He chose not to take his medication and killed two people as a consequence of that. I think he is okay now. If he is not in hospital he will be in the jail."
The third victim, Adayomi Henderson, suffered either two broken legs or a broken arm and leg; he is in serious but stable condition at Bellevue Hospital.
