An investigation into the death of Timothy Cartwell, a Baltimore sanitation worker crushed between a garbage truck and utility pole last November, found no criminal negligence on the part of the driver or crew, but plenty of blame spread among supervisors, the police and Mercy Medical Center, which administers post-accident alcohol and drug tests on city employees.

For example, the Department of Public Works supervisor who came to the scene first told the driver he could leave before police arrived and before a blood sample could be taken to test for alcohol or drug impairment.

The truck was then “removed from the scene as if nothing had occurred,” said Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan J. Bates, releasing a detailed 18-page report yesterday.

Baltimore Police responded lackadaisically, initially recording the accident as “DN” (requiring no police services) and, equally critically, failed to preserve the scene.

Those failures, together with a lapse of 7½ hours before a breathalyzer test was administered to the driver (“all blood alcohol content level tests must be administered within two hours of any accident,” the report noted), left the SAO unable to make a determination of criminal culpability in the death of the 46-year-old Cartwell, a long-serving trash collector.

“Due to DPW’s actions, we do not have the evidence we would need to adequately investigate and determine if the driver’s actions meet the legal thresholds of Criminally Negligent Manslaughter or Grossly Negligent Manslaughter,” Bates said in a statement yesterday, pointedly adding, “However, it is evident that DPW solid waste employees have not received proper training on how to stay safe while performing their duties.”

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Echoing the findings of Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming, who issued scathing reports earlier this year about the heatstroke death of Ronald Silver II and the “toxic culture” inside the solid waste division, Bates noted that Cartwell was never instructed on how to handle trash in narrow alleys “in violation of DPW’s own policy.”

The agency had drafted – but not yet implemented – new operating procedures for garbage trucks entering narrow alleys, calling on laborers to walk behind the truck within view of the driver’s side mirrors.

The report speculates that Cartwell may have been walking alongside the truck when he got caught between the vehicle and a utility pole where the alley narrowed to 8.75 feet.

Regarding driver of the garage truck, Othella C. Gough, “there is no evidence of criminal negligence or any other moving violation in the case” and “no evidence of impairment and no evidence of flight,” the report said.

Mayor Points Finger at Driver

Asked about the report’s findings, Mayor Brandon Scott sidestepped any criticism of DPW management, saying the driver “lied” about the accident, but was “held accountable.” He also placed himself at the center of the police response.

“I just want to remind folks that this was personally referred by me – the mayor – directly to BPD,” he said yesterday. “We’re limited in what we can say and share on personnel matters, but I can say that the driver of the truck lied when initially asked about what happened. When his supervisor was notified about what actually happened, the driver was told to report to BPD and required to report for alcohol and drug screening. I can’t talk to you about the results of that, but he was ultimately fired and no longer works for the City of Baltimore.”

“I just want to remind folks that this was personally referred by me – the mayor – directly to BPD”  – Mayor Brandon Scott.

In a subsequent written statement, Scott said the driver claimed that Cartwell fell from the truck when, in fact, the truck had struck Cartwell.

“Once DPW staff was able to ascertain what actually happened, the driver was immediately referred to police and later for a drug and alcohol screening,” Scott said.

At yesterday’s press availability, DPW Director Matt Garbark stressed how much the department has changed since the deaths of Cartwell and Ron Silver.

“We’ve made a lot of changes in the past year from a lot of different things that happened. This was on the heels of the tragic death last summer. We have put a tremendous amount of training in place. I don’t know how or when that individual may or may not have been trained, but I can tell you that now everyone is trained fully before they ever get on a truck.”

Detailed Time Line

The SAO report offers a somewhat different – and much more detailed – chain of events on November 8, 2024:

• 10:12 a.m. – The truck operated by Gough, with Cartwell and Anthony Epps walking behind it loading trash into the rear compactor, enters the back alley of the 1600 block of North Monroe Street. Heading south, the truck approaches Baker Street, where the alley gets so narrow that there is only 7.2 inches of clearance on each side for the truck.

• 10:18 a.m. – Cartwell is seen on the passenger side of the truck. Seconds later, he can be heard in recovered video footage saying “go go” before screaming, “Ahhhhh.” Epps shouts “go forward” in an attempt to release Cartwell before Gough stops the truck. “There is no evidence Mr. Gough backed the truck up during or prior to striking Mr. Cartwell,” the report says. Both men observe Cartwell lying on the ground. Gough calls 911.

• 10:26 a.m. – Emergency fire response unit arrives and, 12 minutes later, transport Cartwell, suffering from pelvic fractures and other life-threatening injuries, to University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

• 10:39 a.m. – DPW supervisor Mike Anderson arrives and finds Gough very upset, repeating, “I quit, I quit.”

• 10:46 a.m. – Prior to calling police and “against DPW policy,” Anderson allows Gough to leave the scene in a Lyft vehicle. “This is a significant error,” the report says, “as law enforcement could have mandated that Mr. Gough provide a blood sample using a Maryland State Police blood kit if responding officers suspected impairment.”

The garbage truck was “removed from the scene as if nothing had occurred”  – SAO Report.

• 11:03 a.m. – DPW Division Chief Michael Lucas arrives on the scene. Still no call is made to the police.

• 11:13 a.m. – A call for service is placed to BPD. (The report doesn’t say if this call was made by Anderson or Lucas. Or perhaps it was from Mayor Scott?)

• 11:29 a.m. – Officer Wilnick Marius arrives on the scene. He’s told by Anderson that a DPW worker had been struck by a garbage truck and transported to Shock Trauma, with “the entire interaction last[ing] approximately 51 seconds.” Officer Marius codes the call “DN” for “no police services necessary.” As a result, the Police Department’s Crash Team was “eventually notified,” the report says, but nothing was done to preserve or tape off the accident scene.

• 11:30 – 11:40 a.m. – The garbage truck is “removed from the scene as if nothing had occurred,” the report says, and returned to the agency’s Reedbird Sanitation Yard.

• 11:41 a.m – 1:33 p.m. – Previously dropped off at the Reedbird yard by Lyft, Gough leaves the yard in his own vehicle and arrives at Shock Trauma, where he speaks briefly with the Cartwell family and leaves.

• Prior to 2:53 p.m. – Gough arrives at the Northwest District Station to give a statement to police. He is joined by DPW supervisor Anderson. Gough speaks to Officer Michael Ortiz, “who indicated that Mr. Gough showed no signs of impairment.” Gough opts not to provide a statement to Detective Edgardo Mercado of the BPD Crash Team on advice of counsel.

• 4:57 p.m. – Gough leaves the Northwest District Station and is accompanied by Anderson to the Mercy Medical Center.

• 5:50 p.m. – Gough is given a breathalyzer test. It is later discovered that the technician who performed the test had “no certifications,” only on-the-job training. The machine used was about 50 years old and did not comply with current Maryland statutes regarding admissible evidence. “In summary, the breath test administered in this case was of no value,” the report says. A drug test administered to Gough was negative.

• 7:05 p.m. – Cartwell dies at Shock Trauma, roughly nine hours after the accident.

“Dream Job”

Court records show that Gough, 48, has a criminal record, including driving while impaired, where he got probation in 2018, and first-degree assault in 2021, which resulted in a roughly two-year prison sentence.

In 2023, he enrolled in a program for individuals with a criminal record “in pursuit of his dream job at Baltimore City Department of Public Works,” according to his sponsor, the Baltimore-based National Center on Institutions and Alternatives.

“He successfully completed CDL training and received his class B license and was able to fulfill his dream of being employed by DPW, earning $47k annually,” notes a short profile on the NCIA website.

“Othella is a community activist and takes great pride in exercising his right to vote,” it adds.

He was employed by DPW for about six months, and the three-man crew (Gough, Cartwell and Epps) had “a good working relationship,” picking up garbage in the same alley where the accident occurred, the SAO report says.