Grocery delivery goes awry on Washington Avenue

A truck en route to delivering merchandise to Gourmet Glatt Kosher Meat Market on Spruce Street in Cedarhurst struck a tree in front of 202 Washington Ave., in the village, on June 21.

The truck was heading north, away from the store, according to Cedarhurst Mayor Benjamin Weinstock. Video footage provided by Washington Avenue resident Meir Geisinsky’s showed that the driver had turned left off of Central Avenue too early as Washington Avenue directly precedes Spruce Street where the store is located.

Frank Parise, Cedarhurst’s superintendent of Public Works was at the scene and reported that the truck was about 18 inches from the curb when it got stuck. “He wasn’t parking, but we don’t know what the driver was doing so close to the curb,” Weinstock said.

The collision between the truck and tree ripped the side of the truck’s trailer open from the top right corner leaving several boxes exposed. The truck was unloaded and it’s contents taken to Gourmet Glatt.

With its side torn open the truck could not be driven immediately following the accident.

Emergency services sheared off the excess metal, and the truck was moved. It was then left in a Long Island Rail Road parking lot on nearby Pearsall Avenue until Land Span, the company that owns the truck, was able to remove it on June 27.

One woman who lives across the street, but declined to give her name, said she didn’t realize that something had happened until the police came to her door to ask about the incident. “We hear noises going on out in front all day so we never even thought to look,” she said.

Geisinsky said that trucks such as the one that hit the tree drive on Washington Avenue frequently due to the street’s proximity to Central Avenue, but has never seen anything like this happen before. “Occasionally traffic gets backed up because the trucks can’t make it around the turns,” he said, “but that’s normally the extent of [the problems caused by the trucks].”