Baltimore mayor pays tribute to DPW worker crushed to death by truck: "It's an extreme tragedy"

BALTIMORE - Mayor Brandon Scott paid tribute to Timothy Cartwell, the Baltimore City DPW worker who lost his life on the job last week, in his first public comments since Cartwell was killed after being pinned between a trash truck and a utility pole in West Baltimore.

"It's an extreme tragedy," Mayor Scott said, adding that he personally contacted Cartwell's family. "The family and the co-workers have my condolences and the condolences of the entire city of Baltimore."

Video WJZ obtained shows the trash truck as it moved down a narrow alley behind Monroe Street toward Baker Street in West Baltimore just before 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 8.

The video shows Cartwell's colleagues trying to help and a fire truck quickly responding to the scene.

Cartwell worked out of the Reedbird Sanitation Yard. DPW conducted a safety briefing with workers there Tuesday morning.

"It speaks to the ongoing work when you talk about the investments that we've made in DPW even from as simple as ordering new trash trucks for the first time in decades, which we have gotten some but we expect a lot more to come in 2025–for them to finally be in hand for us to have the best equipment out there," the mayor said. "And the work that we're doing working with the union, working with the agency, working with the workers to build a better and safer department that has been ignored for a long time."

The city's Department of Public Works has come under scrutiny after the death of sanitation worker Ronald Silver II in August . Silver collapsed after working in the extreme heat.

An investigation found a lack of training and safety protocols that were not followed.

"...should have never happened."

Silver's family told WJZ through their attorney Thiru Vignarajah, "The men picking up our trash for minimum wage deserve better than hollow words and platitudes from politicians. If change is happening, it's obviously not fast enough or serious enough. We weep with and for another family enduring a heartbreak that should never have happened."

A co-worker of Cartwell spoke to WJZ, asking that we disguise his voice and not show his face.

"I think Mayor Scott, he needs to come out here, man, because I don't think he knows what goes on in these alleys," the DPW employee said. "I just hope that his family gets the answers that they need."

Cartwell's official cause of death has yet to be released.

His family told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren he takes care of his elderly mother and they are still in shock over his sudden death.