Blaz: Let’s let addicts shoot up in safe spots

A PRIVATE Bronx carting company is racking up a body count.

The driver for a trash hauling company who struck and killed an elderly man in the Bronx on Friday was also responsible for running over a homeless man less than six months ago, the Daily News has learned.

So far, Sean Spence, 33, has not been charged in either crash, which were chalked up to accidents, police sources said.

On Friday, Spence was operating a Sanitation Salvage truck when he fatally struck Leon Clark on E. 152nd St. near Jackson Ave. in Morrisania.

Clark, who was in his 70s and lived in the nearby Adams Houses, died at the scene.

On Nov. 7, Spence was behind the wheel of another garbage truck for Sanitation Salvage when a homeless man mounted a step leading up to the truck’s passenger side door as the vehicle rolled past him on Jerome Ave. near E. Gun Hill Road in Norwood.

The man was trying to hold onto the side-view mirror when he lost his grip and fell under the truck’s rear wheels, police said.

Spence’s license was valid before both crashes. Investigations into both cases were still under way, according to police.

When called, Sanitation Salvage MAYOR de Blasio threw his support behind a plan to open spots in New York City where addicts can inject drugs under watchful eyes.

No city in the United States has opened the socalled supervised injection facilities, which are meant to prevent overdose deaths — but there are more than 100 around the world.

De Blasio backed the controversial idea as the Health Department released a long-awaited report on the concept — finding that the program could prevent 130 overdose deaths each year.

The administration said it decided to embrace the idea despite obstacles — especially federal law, which makes it a crime to run a location that facilitates drug use.

If the plan proceeds, sites would open as a one-year pilot program in up to four locations — Gowanus in Brooklyn, Midtown West and Washington Heights in Manhattan, and Longwood in the Bronx.

There are currently needle exchanges at each proposed site. The injection facilities would be run by the nonprofit Research for a Safer New York, and would not get city money.

“The opioid epidemic has killed more people in our city than car crashes and homicides combined,” de Blasio said.

“After a rigorous review … we believe overdose prevention centers will save lives and get more New Yorkers into the treatment they need to beat this deadly addiction.”

In 2017, 1,441 people died of drug overdoses in the city, driven by an epidemic of opioids like heroin and fentanyl. Fatalities have surged 166% since 2010.

Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, blasted the injection facilities plan.

“It’s total insanity,” he said. “Drugs are illegal. So we are now telling people it’s OK to break the law.”