lives were lost because of their actions... that is called criminal negligence...

So your basing your opinions on 5 people out of over a thousand. There are lazy people in every profession and there are people who will say anything to get themselves out of trouble when they are caught red handed not doing there job. And since you obviously have no experience whatsoever working in or around heavy equipment, let me clue you in to a few things.

1. When you are in the cab of a machine of that size you can not hear anything except the sound of the machine. Somebody could be screaming at the top of their lungs and unless they are standing on the steps of the machine with the door open you will not hear a thing.

2. No equipment operator in the world would call for a tow truck unless he had exhausted every possibility of getting out of the situation on his own. Those machines are designed for use in dirt not on ice.

3. when you are being towed backwards and the machine starts to slide there is very little you can do about it when you have no traction.

You are making it sound like the operator of the machine intentionally destroyed the SUV. There is only one way that he would have intentionally damaged the vehicle. If the vehicle was parked in a snow emergency route, as hundreds of drivers do.

You are of course entitled to your opinion. But until you know all the facts why don't you stop grouping every sanitation worker into the same category.

Enough of the Monday morning Quaterbacking, unless you'd like to pick up a shovel and dig yourself out next time give the guys who were out there all night trying to clear the roads a break. I hope for your sake nobody that drives a plow in your neighborhood has seen your posts, or next storm you'll be lucky to get out by Memorial Day.

My state has had 2 blizzards this year, and people died either from fires, frostbite or trying to swim in a frozen river. Either way people died during the blizzard and its nobody's fault. It happens. Also, I have to plow the snow off the runways and the parking garages and Paul is right about not being able to hear anyone outside the cabin. And after 14 hours of pushing snow, I will sleep in the cabin after I've been relieved by someone else.

Theres just too much speculation about the evils of sanitation workers. I am one and belive me, we are always the first to be blamed for everything under the sun, even if we have no direct influence over it.

if, and agian, IF they plotted not to do their jobs clearing snow, they should be prosecuted. sure people die from blizzards, but any life they can help out by clearing snow and by DOING their job should be first thing on their minds. i don't think anyone can directly blame any one death on them, but it does seem by their actions that some lives could have been saved if they woulda done their jobs......

"Trying to swim in a frozen river"?? That doesn't sound like it's blizzard related. Sounds more like natural selection. lol Keep up the good work. I plow the office parking lot and a few driveways and the idiots out driving in blizzards never ceases to amaze me. At the height of this last storm I saw a guy out driving a Mini Cooper. During a major blizzard if your job isn't a matter of life or death, STAY HOME. You only make things worse and get in the way.

People who work in certain jobs are required to work, even during a snow emergency. I'm only a computer programmer, but since I work for a Medical Transcription company, I am required to be at work regardless of how bad the snow is. What was the person in the mini-cooper going to do? It could have been a job that had human lives hanging in the balance.

But it was a blizzard!

I get that, I really do. I understand that the weather was really bad.

My point, which nearly everyone seems to miss, is that CITY WORKERS who are paid with TAXPAYER MONEY were STRIKING and intentionally doing a BAD JOB. If they had done the best they could, I would agree with you, that it was a terrible, but unavoidable death. But they weren't doing their best, according to five of the city workers.

What part of this do you guys disagree with? Do you think we should change our laws, so that we eliminate "criminal negligence" as a crime? You guys seem so blase about the fact that people decided to not do their job right, which might have lead to the loss of human life. It's a symptom of what is wrong with our society, when human life has so little value that the negligent loss of life isn't deemed a crime.

Again you are quoting 5 workers out of over a thousand. I was out plowing in that storm, and during the height of the storm from after midnight until almost 8 am you could not keep up with it. With the wind blowing the snow back as fast as you could plow it. Add to that that in NYC there is absolutely no place to put that amount of snow. I think it is incredibly unfair for you or the media to try to blame the death of anyone by an act of nature on Sanitation Workers as a group. If there are a few bad apples they should be investigated and punished accordingly. But you and the media are throwing out generalized accusations at the group as a whole. And the video that you referenced caused all kinds of outrage when it ran on the news and anyone, that knows anything about heavy equipment, knows there was nothing that operator could do.

I'll take those five people's word over 1000 people who might be guilty of a crime. It's up to the courts to decide, but I see that they had nothing to gain from their report.

Anyone who isn't a total moron would know that the front end loader was hitting the car.

i saw that video, and there really wasn't any other way to get the front end loader out of there... i'm sure they need that tractor to help clear some roads, and it was an older explorer that had 100,000 miles on it that was owned by the city.... not that big of a deal

So you would condemn the entire Sanitation Dept. on the word of 5 people, who as you stated were told "not to do there jobs". Did it occur to you that perhaps the reason they came forward was to explain why they weren't doing their job. If the majority of the Sanitation Dept. had listened to the "Supervisors" that told them not to do there job New York City would still be buried under 2 feet of snow with drifts over 4 feet.

He knew he was hitting the car but he was being towed backwards by a heavy duty wrecker while he had no traction on ice. There was absolutely nothing that any operator could have done at that point. It's called an accident, that sort of thing happens during a blizzard. Again you are combining two unrelated issues to try and justify your position. Did you watch the entire video or just enough to form an opinion about a topic you are obviously ignorant about?

I guess where y'all live you have become accustomed and spoiled by such services.
I'm thinking with that attitude y'all wouldn't last one good snow here.

It would be felony hit and run if anyone else had done that...why do the city workers get a pass?

I would call for the trial of every Sanitation worker who didn't do their job or called for the "strike". Oh wait, that's what I did in the original post. My job is done here.

It's called felony hit and run, people on the sidewalk had to stop the drivers, before they took off.

maybe because the owners of the explorer (the city) didn't press charges? dosn't it have to be reported as a crime to be a crime?

I don't know how to drive a front end loader, but I have been told by those who do, that a competent driver can use the bucket to move when stuck. You can tell the two involved were competent, because they committed felony hit and run in broad daylight, while witnesses were watching.

So I can rape a woman and as long as she never reports it, it's legal?

i'll let you figure that out on your own... property damage vrs rape?...try agian

I think you have just reached a new level of ignorance, as well as insensitivity and down right stupidity. To compare an accident during a blizzard to the intentional rape of a woman has to be one of the most ridiculous comments I have ever heard. I thought this was a rational conversation with differing opinions but now I realize I was having a conversation with a complete a$$. Crawl back under whatever rock you came from.