A man studying to be a rabbi was fatally run over by a city sanitation truck while crossing the street in Crown Heights on Sunday, sources said.
Gedalia Gruntzweig, 25 — who attends rabbinical school in Morristown, NJ, and was in Brooklyn for a pal’s engagement party — was walking with a friend when he was struck on Carroll Street at Kingston Avenue around 9:15 a.m., according to law-enforcement sources.
“I heard these terrible screams,” said witness Abraham Greisman. “All I saw was the truck, the driver getting out, pacing back and forth. He must have been in shock.”
Security camera footage from a nearby store showed that the sanitation truck had the green light when it turned right from Kingston onto Carroll, said a resident who lives in the building and saw the footage, which was turned over to police.
But Gruntzweig and his friend also had the “walk signal’’ when they stepped into the crosswalk on Carroll, law-enforcement sources said.
The victim was hit by the front side of the truck, knocked down and run over by its rear wheels,
sources said. The driver apparently didn’t see the man before hitting him, sources said.
No summonses were issued to the driver and he was released.
“The truck made a turn, and boom! Ran over him with both tires. Tragic,’’ said community activist Geoffrey Davis, who saw other video surveillance of the incident.
Brooklyn Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo said Gruntzweig was originally from Ukraine. He was an only child, sources said.
“This is something that is just so tragic for this community, for where he lives and his family abroad as well,” Cumbo said.
A Sanitation Department source said the truck in the area was picking up garbage that had been piling up on the street since the recent spate of bad weather.
The department released a statement sending its “deepest condolences” to the victim’s family.