Vigil held for man killed in Dallas sanitation truck crash

Friends, family and strangers attended a Saturday night vigil for a man killed in a sanitation truck crash. 

Investigators are trying to figure out what caused the driver of a city sanitation truck to crash into a parked trash truck. There were two passengers in the city truck. One was in critical condition, the other died.

Saturday night’s vigil was an intimate gathering for Alvin Sadler, held just feed from where the 49-year-old City of Dallas sanitation worker died Thursday.

Ashley Bell was on her way to meet her husband for lunch that morning when she came up on the crash near the entrance of the McCommas Bluff Landfill in Southeast Oak Cliff.

“I don’t have no words any words at all. It’s just unbelievable. I just really couldn't believe it,” she said.

According to Dallas Police, the city sanitation truck was headed eastbound on Simpson Stuart road, toward the dump, when for reasons unknown, the driver crashed into a parked commercial trash truck.

Sadler was killed, the other passenger in the city truck was critically injured.

Desmond Watts drives the route regularly and says it can be dangerous.

“It's a little chaotic as you can see there's no real indications on the road it's just one big street. This trucks take up a lot of space so if you're not careful you can definitely get hurt,” he said.

Ashley Bell didn’t know Sadler, but her husband works in the same city department. She felt the need to come out to the vigil to say a prayer for his family.

“This man he went to work and he didn’t get to make it back home to his family,” she said.

The driver of the parked truck was not injured. Bell says the city worker who was critically injured will have to have his legs amputated. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.