A man walking in Columbia Heights was killed this afternoon when he was struck by a waste-removal truck in the 1400 block of Columbia Road NW. The victim, who has not been identified, was hit by the truck about 2 p.m., police said.
It is not yet known whether the driver of the truck or the victim was at fault, police said. But from the intersection of Columbia Road and 14th Street, one block south of the Columbia Heights Metrorail station, onlookers could spot the victim’s body, draped underneath a sheet, lying on Harvard Court NW, an narrow alley that juts off Columbia Road toward Harvard Street.
Rosalind Daughtry, who lives a few blocks away from the scene, said she was walking to the Target at the DC USA shopping complex when she saw police beginning to investigate the incident.
“They came and checked and then they put the sheet over him,” she said about an hour after the collision was reported.
The investigation caused mid-afternoon traffic to be diverted past the intersection.
A Metropolitan Police Department spokesman was unsure how many pedestrians have been fatally struck by moving vehicles in D.C. this year, but there have been other incidents in recent months in which people have been struck by garbage trucks. A man was seriously injured March 9 when he was struck by a truck on Good Hope Road SE.
