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25-Year-Old Rabbinical Student Hit and Killed by NYC Sanitation Truck

By Jess Wisloski | February 23, 2014 12:46pm | Updated on February 24, 2014 4:46pm
 The 25-year-old rabbinical student was struck and killed by a city Sanitation truck Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014.
Gedalya Greenzayd
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CROWN HEIGHTS — A 25-year-old student studying to be a rabbi died after being hit by a Department of Sanitation truck Sunday morning, according to police and reports.

Gedalya Grinzaid, who lived in New Jersey but was in Brooklyn for the weekend for a friend's wedding, according to one of his teachers, was walking in the crosswalk on Kingston Avenue and had the right of way when he was hit, police said.

The Sanitation truck driver, who at the same intersection was turning right onto Carroll Street from Kingston Avenue, was making a right turn when he hit Grinzaid at 9:10 a.m., police said.

The driver stayed on the scene and was not ticketed, sources said.

Grinzaid had been studying at a Morristown yeshiva, according to Rabbi Boruch Hecht.

 A 25-year-old was struck and killed in Crown Heights by a Sanitation truck, police said.
A 25-year-old was struck and killed in Crown Heights by a Sanitation truck, police said.
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DNAinfo/Nigel Chiwaya

"He was an amazing person," Hecht said. "In a very quiet, unassuming manner he managed to make many friends. He was a standout student who helped tutor other students. He was well on his way to becoming a rabbi."

Grinzaid, who came from the Ukraine, had started crossing with the green light, according to CrownHeights.info, and did not see the truck coming, his friends told the online publication. He was crushed and killed instantly by the truck's rear wheels, witnesses said. 

Police said he suffered severe head trauma, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

"The Department of Sanitation offers its deepest condolences to the family of the young man lost today, and the entire Crown Heights community," the statement said.

"The Department mourns this tragedy, and will work with the Police Department in their full and complete investigation of this accident."

An investigation was ongoing, police said.

A funeral was scheduled to take place Monday. The exact time had not been set as of 2 p.m., according to the Chabad Lubavitch synagogue on Eastern Parkway.