DANVERS — A mother suffered injuries when a Republic Services truck driven by a scab replacement driver crashed into her car from behind while she was waiting at a stop sign near Route 1 in Danvers.
At about noon last Thursday, a Republic Services truck driven by scab driver Jessy Hammond of Alabama slammed into the rear of a Mazda CX-5 driven by a 32-year-old mother from Salem.
The woman was stopped at a stop sign waiting to take a right hand turn onto a busy Route 1. The impact of the huge Republic truck weighing several tons slamming into the smaller SUV shattered the young woman’s rear window, spraying glass into the vehicle.
The driver of the car suffered a concussion and other injuries. It’s incredibly fortunate that the new mom decided to leave her 1-year-old daughter at home with her grandmother before running an errand to Costco, as she typically takes her daughter with her to the store. The shards of broken glass were sprayed all over the back seat area where the baby usually sits in her car seat.
The mother of the injured driver, Beth Kontos, is the retired longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts. While thankful her granddaughter was not in the vehicle, she is outraged that her daughter could have been killed because of the reckless actions of this replacement driver.
“As a union member, I have walked the picket line with Teamsters Local 25 members in Peabody. They deserve a good contract, and our communities deserve safe, quality service with experienced Teamster drivers,” Kontos said. “Our worst fears are coming true with unsafe driving practices by untrained scab drivers shipped in from other parts of the country.
“In this case, my daughter was rear-ended by a 20-ton truck and suffered severe injuries while her car sustained extensive damage. The rear window shattered and fell into her baby’s car seat. Fortunately, the baby was not in the car!”
Kontos went on to express her disdain for Republic knowingly putting communities at risk, saying there have been many reports of negligent driving and crashes caused by inexperienced replacement drivers.
“Republic has created a public safety issue as well as a health issue. The company needs to get back to the table and make a deal. Our community deserves their services restored and the Teamster drivers deserve a fair contract. My family is very fortunate that this did not have a worse outcome,” Kontos said.
Teamsters Local 25 President Thomas G. Mari condemned Republic for jeopardizing public safety with these unqualified drivers while refusing to negotiate with its regular full-time employees who have been on strike for 57 days.
“Republic is putting innocent lives at risk every day by deploying these poorly trained, out-of-state scab drivers in our communities,” Mari said. “We are thankful the driver of the Mazda is going to recover, and this crash should serve as a wake-up call that these replacement drivers are a danger to the public.
“It’s time for Republic to give its Teamster employees the same pay and health insurance provided by Star and Capitol and end this strike so our members can get back to work and safely clean the streets of Massachusetts.”
Republic has spent more than $50 million dollars on non-union replacement drivers instead of providing better health insurance to its permanent employees.
Republic did not respond to requests for comments about this incident before Peabody Weekly News’ press time.
