Stark new details have emerged about what happened in the hours leading up to a Baltimore sanitation worker’s death last summer, thanks to an account provided by a co-worker.

Even before 6 a.m., temperatures on August 2 were nearing 80 degrees when the men began their shift collecting city trash, Travis Christian said yesterday at a news conference called by his attorney, Thiru Vignarajah.

As conditions worsened, with the heat index eventually reaching triple digits, Christian passed out, hitting the back of his head on the ground.

He was revived by his co-worker, Ronald Silver II, who “kind of shook me and woke me up off the ground.”

About an hour later, Christian said it was Silver who was “screaming and hollering.” When he came around to the other side of the truck, he found him on the ground, face down.

“I remember him having scrapes on his hands, on his knuckles and on his elbows,” Christian said. “When I turned him over, his eyes were rolling in the back of his head. He was going in and out of consciousness.”

Still weak after his own collapse, Christian said he struggled to pick Silver up, and eventually managed to get him into the truck.

“He was screaming, ‘Massage my legs!’ He was having cramps and knots in his legs,” Christian said. “And I was telling Mr. Silver, no, I can’t even massage my own legs. I was having the same symptoms he was feeling.”

The cramps and nausea both men were experiencing are classic early symptoms of heat illness.

“His eyes were rolling in the back of his head. He was going in and out of consciousness”  – Travis Christian.

Christian told the driver that “it felt like I’m getting ready to die. I can no longer continue doing this. God, I felt my lights turning off inside my body.”

Christian managed to walk home at that point, despite feeling “delirious.”

Silver reportedly stayed on the truck, which dropped him off on Barclay Street where his car was parked.

Knocking on a random resident’s door and begging for water, the 36-year-old father of five collapsed.

He later died at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital of what the State Medical Examiner’s Office said was hyperthermia, or abnormally high body temperature.

“Inhumane” Culture

Several questions at the news conference were aimed at the issue of accountability.

Asked about the truck driver, Christian said he did not know if the man ever tried to call for medical help for the two ailing laborers.

After he passed out and hit his head, did the driver do anything?

“Nothing” came the reply.

But Vignarajah demurred when a reporter asked if criminal charges may be filed in the case, noting that an investigation by the Baltimore Police Department is pending.

“What I can tell you is that this agency is guilty of creating a culture that is inhumane and unacceptable,” he said, pointing the finger at the Department of Public Works (DPW), whose Bureau of Solid Waste is in charge of municipal refuse and recycling pickup.

“They’re expected to pick up our trash for a dime on the dollar, and if [employees] complain, they get stuck in trucks without air conditioning,” he said, echoing the complaints of  a “toxic work culture” by sanitation workers and union officials last summer.

The death of a second sanitation worker, Timothy Cartwell, has also raised questions about DPW’s safety practices.

Cartwell was fatally struck by a garbage truck while on the job in West Baltimore on November 8.

As in the case of Silver’s death, there has been some finger-pointing at the driver.

But Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming has reported more broadly on the dangerous working conditions facing sanitation workers as well as DPW’s failure to require heat safety training and other procedures to protect workers.

• In surprise visit, Baltimore inspector general finds sanitation workers exposed to extreme heat, no A/C (7/10/24)

An independent review conducted by a D.C. law firm hired by the city, Conn Maciel Carey LLP, came to much the same conclusion.

“Our investigation revealed a history of heat-related medical emergencies among the solid waste collectors such as fainting, severe cramping, vomiting and more severe physical responses, with an inadequate agency response from DPW,” the report by Conn Maciel Carey LLP said.

“Go get the f-ing trash”

Christian’s remarks yesterday in front of television cameras aligned with those findings as well.

He said he and Silver were not given a break that day, despite the Code Red heat conditions. The only time they typically get a chance to rest at work is when the truck leaves to dump its load.

Asked to describe the pressures he felt to work quickly and continuously, Christian put it this way:

“They tell us to the shut the fuck up and go get the fucking trash so we can get the fuck outta here,” he said, apologizing for the profanity.

(Work rules instituted years ago in lieu of giving trash workers pay raises, insiders say, created a system that incentivizes finishing service routes quickly, so that workers can either clock out early or pick up additional work on overtime pay.)

In the nearly three years he worked for DPW, Christian said that he never received any training about how to recognize heat illness and how to treat it.

Christian said he never received training about how to recognize heat illness and how to treat it.

Also surfacing at the press conference was another issue for solid waste workers documented by IG Cumming – the fact that many lack health insurance.

Christian said he did not have any health insurance at the time of his collapse last August and that no one had made clear he could obtain it.

In October, Cumming’s office reported that 136 solid waste workers – or nearly one fifth of the sanitation force – did not have city-provided health insurance and were not receiving a waiver credit.

At the time, Cumming blasted the Scott administration for its failure to assist workers who may not have much education, but are doing one of the city’s dirtiest and most physically demanding jobs.

“We tout ourselves as a second-chance employer for those with criminal records or with little work experience, but we don’t give them the tools to succeed,” she told The Brew.

Multiple Health Problems

Suggesting possible future litigation, Vignarajah stepped in to provide some information, including the multiple medical problems the 47-year-old has suffered since the incident.

He has been treated for headaches, nausea, cramping, body aches, light and noise sensitivity, leg weakness and other conditions, the lawyer said.

Doctors declared Christian unable to work and prescribed medications, physical therapy and talk therapy to help him deal with his trauma. He’s currently on extended sick leave.

Vignarajah, who represents Silver’s family as well, noted that nearly four months since his death, “we still do not have a clear understanding of what happened that day.”

The Conn Maciel Carey report never addressed that question, and investigations by four agencies – DPW, the Police Department, the OIG and Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) – have not been completed.

Silver’s aunt, Renee Meredith, thanked Christian for coming forward to provide an account of their loved one’s last hours.

“We’re extremely appreciative for his courage to give his eyewitness testimony, what he witnessed that day,” Meredith said. “And we’re equally grateful for the assistance that he provided my nephew, trying to help him, to do whatever he could.”