Machines Don’t Just Serve To Justify Annoying Alternate-Side Parking Rules

Apparently they actually do suck stuff up there:

A Boston terrier was sucked into a fast-moving street sweeper and killed in a heartrending accident in the Bronx.

“It happened so fast,” said the dog’s owner, Robert Machin, who was holding Ginger’s leash when she disappeared. “It spun me around, and as it spun me around, I caught a last glimpse of her.”

Machin, who had been walking the dogs in the Soundview neighborhood Thursday morning, had the door to his Honda Civic open and was about to get inside with Ginger and his other terrier, Buster, when the sweeper struck the dog.

Witnesses said the Department of Sanitation vehicle was speeding.

“I was devastated,” Machin said. “I was completely dumbfounded and shocked. I mean, I just witnessed my dog sucked up into a street sweeper.”

He said he chased the sweeper for about 2 1/2 blocks, shouting for the operator to stop. The driver eventually went back to the scene, but refused to turn off the whirring brushes that had crushed the pooch until he arrived.

The Department of Sanitation called the death “a rare and unfortunate accident.”