Tyrah Adams, 35, died on February 12 after a solid waste crew using a grappler truck picked her up while clearing a Louisville alley during a routine cleanup. The Jefferson County Coroner confirmed her cause of death was blunt force trauma, and her death was listed as accidental.
Adams was homeless and known by locals to frequent the area near Cedar Street, living behind a convenience store nearby. She was picked up by a garbage truck that used a hydraulic claw on Feb. 12 while it was trying to clear debris. Truck operators reportedly did not see Adams and later released her from the claw.
She didn’t walk into this truck. They physically picked her up with that claw, squeezed her, compressed her, and dropped her. And left her there to find her own help.
Witnesses told police that the trash grappler operator deboarded the crane after plopping Adams back on the ground, looked at the pile of garbage and returned to the vehicle. A police report found that the person operating the truck's crane picked up the pile of trash, set it back down and got out of their seat to look at the pile, then returned to the driver's seat and pulled the truck forward. Adams got up on her own and walked to the convenience store. She collapsed in the doorway and was found by a store clerk and a customer who phoned 911. Adams had blood coming out of her mouth and nose and was completely unable to speak. The Metro sanitation workers who were operating the vehicle did not call for help. Adams died at the University of Louisville Hospital.
The Louisville Metro Police Department's Public Integrity Unit reviewed surveillance footage, which corroborated witness accounts. The public works employees operating the garbage truck at the time have since been placed on leave. Their truck was impounded by police amid the ongoing investigation.
No one went out and inspected the area where they were gathering up this trash. If they had just done that, they would have seen her. They would not have picked her up.
The family's attorney, Stephanie Rivas, is compiling information as the family prepares to sue the city in the next few weeks. The family of Tyrah Adams plans to pursue legal action against the city. Rivas claimed that her investigators inspected the truck and found that one internal camera had been covered up. Rivas said she believes Adams' family has not been given all the available information. Rivas told Louisville Public Media that Adams' family had not seen footage from an outward-facing camera attached to the truck or from nearby surveillance cameras.
For weeks, the city told family members that Adams had simply come in contact with the vehicle and her death was an unfortunate accident. For weeks, Louisville police asserted that Adams died after having come into contact with a garbage truck during a routine cleanup in an alley.
They had to get out of the truck to operate that equipment, but had they done the extra step that they were required to do and inspected the area, they would have found Tyrah. This was completely preventable on their part.