UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan — An employee for the Department of Transportation was killed when he was accidentally struck and run over by a colleague driving a truck near Gracie Mansion in Upper Manhattan early Tuesday, police said.
According to the FDNY, a call came in just after 1 a.m. for a person struck on East 88th Street, between York and East End avenues, less than a block from Gracie Mansion.
When police arrived, they found 44-year-old Eduardo Calleabril, of Queens, lying in the road, unconscious and unresponsive, with injuries to his body, the NYPD said.
According to police, an investigation revealed the worker was working on the road surface behind a Mack DOT dump truck when the truck, being driven by a 35-year-old DOT employee, began to move in reverse.
The truck struck Calleabril and knocked him to the ground before rolling over him, police said.
The man was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was later pronounced dead, authorities confirmed.
“I was woken up by some frantic screaming,” an eyewitness who only identified himself as Mark to PIX11 News said Tuesday. “People screaming ‘no, stop,’ ‘back up, stop.’ When I went to look to the window and it appeared across the street that one of the workers, the road pavers, was crushed by a dump truck,” the witness continued.
Work immediately stopped and footage showed fellow city workers placing candles and flowers at makeshift memorial for the man who was killed.
The DOT was paving East 88th Street, near the entrance of Gracie Mansion, as of Tuesday.
There were no arrests at the time of this report.
PIX11 has reached out to the DOT for comment and is still waiting to hear back at this time.
