Driver in 2021 fatal garbage truck crash found guilty of involuntary manslaughter

After a two-day trial before Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas Judge Donna Long Brightbill, a 30-year-old Ephrata man was found guilty of his role in a fatal garbage truck crash near the Lebanon County VA Medical Center in 2021.

It took a jury almost two hours Wednesday afternoon to find former Waste In Time garbage truck driver Zachary Gilbert guilty of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of reckless endangerment. Jurors found the 30-year-old Ephrata man not guilty of homicide by vehicle and aggravated assault by vehicle.

Gilbert testified Wednesday that he doesn't remember what happened during the crash but that he was "genuinely sorry for everything that transpired."

"I didn't wake up that morning just to cause this accident," he said. "I didn't wake up and say that this was the day I just wanted to ruin everybody's lives."

Gilbert was also found guilty Wednesday of summary offenses of unlawful activities-operating with hazardous break system, reckless driving and driving at safe speeds.

June 4 accident

On the morning of June 4, 2021, Gilbert and two other employees were traveling on State Drive heading toward Lebanon City in a Waste In Time Garbage Truck. Upon negotiating a curve near the VA Medical Center, Gilbert lost control of the vehicle.

"Initially when I looked out, the truck was half on the road, half off," Jeremiah Boyer, who works for the VA Medical Center, testified Tuesday. "That quick shot back on the road, and at that time the back end started like fish tailing."

The truck then was back off State Drive, with Boyer saying that the front end started twisting the opposite way of the back end. The packer body came off of the truck and flew up into the air, with both the cab and the packer body coming to a stop off the roadway.

Boyer said he found Gilbert on his hands an knees on the passenger side of the door. The other two workers, Tyler Knowles and Richard Miller, were found outside of the truck with severe injuries from the crash and were taken to the Penn State Health Hershey Medical Center.

Miller spent two weeks in the hospital and several surgeries, with injuries that included 12 ribs fractured, a pelvis fracture and issues with several teeth. Miller added that he had traumatic brain injuries that caused trouble with his short term memory.

"I felt we were flying," he testified about the crash. "We cut the turn, the front tire went underneath the truck and we just ... it rolled."

Knowles, 30, died a few days later due to extensive injuries from the crash.

Gilbert received a concussion, broken ribs and lacerations to his liver and spleen because of the accident. He testified Wednesday that he does not remember what happened during the accident, or conversations he may have had with with witnesses.

Knowles and Gilbert were partnered on the same truck, and used to carpool home. Gilbert said the two were very close, often spending 60 hours a week together including carpooling for work.

"I've said it a couple of times that I wish that I could switch places with Tyler," he said to the jury.

Crash investigation

CDL drivers are required to complete a pre-trip inspection before taking a vehicle, like a garbage truck, out onto the road. These inspections take 30 minutes and include looking for leaks, inspecting lights and checking the brake system.

"When it comes to a pre-trip inspection, there's 45 points that a driver must look at before he starts his trip in the morning time," former North Lebanon Township Sgt. Duane Koons, who was the officer in charge of the reconstruction team in 2021, said. "The reason he does that is pure safety. It's for him to make sure he's getting home, it's for the people who are out there on the road as well."

The Lebanon County Accident Reconstruction Team found mismatched front axle brake chambers on the truck. The right side was a type 20 and the left side was a type 24, which Koons said was a half-inch difference.

You cannot have two different brake chambers on the same axle, according to Koons. If they are mismatched, it could affect issues like emergency braking.

"(The vehicle) will have a tendency to pull towards where the bigger chamber is, 'cause 'there's more pressure, more force in that bigger chamber," he testified Tuesday.

Brake chambers are part of the pre-trip inspection, Koons added. Under the law, two different size brake chambers would make the the vehicle unsafe and should not be used until it has been repaired.

According to records provided by Waste In Time, Gilbert's truck was overweight 108 times between Jan. 2, 2021 and June 3, 2021. The total gross weight the truck could safely carry was 33,000 lbs. No official weight of the garbage truck was given after the crash.

A garbage truck should never be driven over its gross weight, Koons said.

"They don't brake as efficiently now as they do, because now they are really heavy," he said. "In this case, it changes the center of gravity. The more you pack that, and the fuller it gets as it's entering these curves, it becomes almost top heavy at that point."

Some of the witnesses testified that Gilbert told them after the crash that the truck was running "heavy."

"I assumed that heavy meant overweight," South Lebanon Police Department Patrolman Jason Marley said. "So I asked (Gilbert) the question 'does that mean it's overweight?' and he replied 'probably.'"

Officers also noticed that the seat belts in the garbage truck had not been worn during the crash, according to Marley.

Gilbert gave a blood sample after the crash, which tested positive for marijuana. While Gilbert told officers he would test positive for marijuana, he added that he was not smoking it that day.

First Assistant District Attorney Brian Deiderick said Gilbert had responsibilities before and while he was on the road, and because he did not fulfill those responsibilities the fatal crash occurred.

"How many times do you have to pull the trigger, play Russian Roulette, before something bad happens," he said in his opening remarks to the jury. "That's reckless, that's negligence. That is the definition of behavior that counts for homicide by vehicle."

Defense issues

South Lebanon Township Police Department arrested Gilbert on March 2023, two years after the initial crash. Defense attorney Ian Ehrgood, of Ehrgood & Arnold, said in his opinion it was "highly unusual" for charges to be filed so much later than when the incident occurred.

"The charges were filed in March 2023," he said. "In April 2023 I reached out to the former assistant district attorney assigned to the case, and asked to see the truck with my expert witness. I didn't get a response one way or the other."

Ehrgood said he followed up with the district attorney's office again in June and August the same year. At the end of August 2023, he was told that the truck was scrapped.

Sean Welling, owner of Waste in Time Inc., told the jury that the truck pieces sat at his shop for two and a half years. He scrapped the truck after speaking with his personal attorney, who said he didn't need to hold onto the vehicle. Welling added that nobody contacted him in those two and a half years about coming to inspect the vehicle, but he also did not inform anyone, including the police, that he had the truck parts.

Deiderick declined to speak with the Lebanon Daily News about the trial after the verdict had been delivered.

The garbage truck involved in the accident had broken down several times before June 2021, with Gilbert saying that it broke down three days and the day before the crash. Gilbert added he was not having issues with the brakes before the accident.

Gilbert also testified that he completed a pre-trip inspection on the day of the accident, which usually was done around 1 a.m. with a flashlight.

"There was no testimony that Zack Gilbert did not do a pre-trip inspection the morning of June 4, 2021... You heard his testimony that he didn't believe that identifying those two mismatched (brake chambers) on opposite sides of the truck was something within his purview," Ehrgood said. "Obviously the district attorney's argument was that is something he should have caught."

Ehrgood said he spoke with observers at the trial asking what the liability was for the installer of the mismatched brake chambers, and agreed the jury may have been conflicted about who was ultimately at fault for the fatal crash.

"I think the jury's verdict today sends a signal that is something they took into consideration," he told the Lebanon Daily News.

There has been no indication Wednesday that Gilbert would appeal the jury's decision. Gilbert is looking to potentially serve a minimum of 21 months in incarceration, according to Ehrgood.

"I did have an opportunity to speak with (Gilbert) briefly," Ehrgood said. "He is a little upset still. We're going to revisit this in a week or two, see where he stands and prepare for his sentencing hearing."

Gilbert's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 14, 2024.

Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on X at @DAMattToth .

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Driver in 2021 fatal garbage truck crash found guilty of involuntary manslaughter