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Retired Postal Worker Killed by Garbage Truck in Chelsea

By Ben Fractenberg | January 18, 2013 3:55pm | Updated on January 18, 2013 7:22pm

CHELSEA — A recently retired postal worker was run over by a garbage truck in Chelsea Friday afternoon, according to police and witnesses. 

Thomas Berry, 66, was crossing Ninth Avenue at West 29th Street just before 2:30 p.m. when he tripped and fell into the rear wheels of a slow-moving truck heading south on Ninth Avenue, police said.

Berry was rushed to Beth Israel Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

"It wasn't [the truck driver's] fault," said Berry's former coworker, John Carmitchel, 55, a building inspector for the postal service, who witnessed the crash. "He didn't see him."

Another witness, who was standing nearby, said Berry "wasn't moving at all" after being hit.

The driver of the 2007 Mac truck remained on the scene and there was no criminality, police said.

In July 2011, Marilyn Dershowitz, Alan Dershowitz's sister-in-law, was struck and killed by a mail truck at the same intersection while riding her bike.

Berry's friends described him as kind and gentle.

"He wouldn't hurt a soul," said Carmitchel, who added that Berry is a "great guy."