I noticed two people have been killed by garbage trucks in Minnesota in the past few weeks, and did a google search for the phrase “killed by garbage truck”, it is not as uncommon as it may seem, or as it should be. A sampling from the first few pages of the Google search below:

• St. Paul artist killed by garbage truck 6/26/09
• 5-year-old killed by garbage truck in Brooklyn Center (Minnesota) (6/4/09)
• Man killed by garbage truck (Sydney) 4/10/09
• Downtown Worker Killed By Garbage Truck (Des Moines) 11/7/08
• Woman Killed by Garbage Truck in Dupont (bike) (Washington) 7/8/08
• Pedestrian on Farmingdale campus killed by garbage truck (New York) (5/26/08)
• NSW: Sydney Dance Company director killed by garbage truck (8/17/07)
• San Rafael man struck, killed by garbage truck in Sausalito 6/4/07
• Child Hit, Killed by Garbage Truck (Las Vegas) 1/27/07. From the article some more evidence:
  

  In December of 2004, 19-year-old Ashley Ipock was hit and killed when a Republic truck driver slammed into the back of Ashley’s mother’s SUV.
  In October of 2006, 3-year-old girl Ditavea Hankston was critically injured when a Republic Services track slammed into the car she was in that was stopped at a red light, crushing the back seat. Police say the driver was not paying attention and couldn’t stop in time. They cited him with five traffic violations, including failure to use due care.
  The child was in the hospital for two months. When she came home she could not speak, or move on her own.

• Toddler Killed By Garbage Truck (Denver) 11/28/05
• Mount Pleasant bicyclist hit, killed by garbage truck. (Charleston) (12/23/03)

I could not find a systematic database of these (which is not to say no one is tracking this, I just don’t know). So the question is, are these random tragedies, or is there a systematic problem (lack of safety equipment on trucks, poor driver training, poor pedestrian/bicyclist training)?