Eyewitness News is told the sanitation worker, identified as 41-year-old Frank Justich, was removed to Elmhurst General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:15 a.m.
The operator of the truck remained at the scene. There is no sign of criminality.
"Our sympathy goes out to the family of Frank Justich, who was killed on the job this morning," Harry Nespoli, President of New York City's Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association, Local 831 IBT, said in a statement.
Justich, a resident of Flushing, Queens, was a city sanitation worker for 11 years and leaves behind a wife and two small children. He worked out of the Queens West 1 garage.
"New York City sanitation workers have one of the most strenuous and dangerous jobs in the country," Nespoli said. "This is the 10th death of a sanitation worker on the job in just over six years. Since Nov. 29, 2003, seven sanitation workers have been killed in accidents involving trucks and three had heart attacks while at work."
