Runaway garbage truck prompts neighborhood evacuation

An unoccupied garbage truck took an unscheduled trip through Gig Harbor, Washington, eventually crashing into a building after sending an unoccupied passenger car on a similar crash course.

According to an online report from Seattle TV station KOMO, several businesses were evacuated in the neighborhood the morning of Wednesday, March 29, 2017, after the runaway truck and car plowed into a building and caused a natural gas leak.

The TV stations says police and fire department investigators determined that “the garbage truck was unattended when it began rolling backwards. It rolled several hundred feet before crashing into a parked car and then into a local business. The car also was pushed into the business by the force of the impact.”

Several businesses at and near the site of the crash were evacuated because of fears of a gas leak, KOMO reports, with many of the businesses reopening after the leak was shut off.  No one was injured by the accident, according to the TV station. Gig Harbor is about 40 miles southwest of Seattle.

Photos taken on the scene by KOMO TV indicate the truck belongs to Puyallup, Washington-based DM Disposal, which is part of Murrey’s Disposal and also part of Canada-based Waste Connections Inc.