WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NCBiohazardous waste left behind after crashes mean mess for homeowners

Biohazardous waste left behind after crashes mean mess for homeowners

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - A photo taken one day after a bad car accident in north Charlotte is drawing attention to what one man calls a gap in the law.

A photo of a grassy area in the 6500 block of Old Concord Road showed rolls of bloody gauze and used medical gloves left behind after emergency workers treated seven patients involved in a head-on collision.

The leftover waste raised questions about who is responsible for cleaning up debris and biohazardous waste after a car accident.

Mark Fagala is a biohazard specialist who's spent the last 24 years cleaning up other peoples' messes.

"EMS takes 'em in, Highway Patrol clears, and it's just left for the property owner to clean up," said Fagala.

That didn't sound fair to the homeowner off Old Concord Road, who complained to the city of Charlotte about the gloves and gauze left on his front lawn. 

Within hours, MEDIC of Mecklenburg County sent out a crew to clean up the mess, taking away everything but one glove, found by a neighbor a few hundred feet away.

"Just a glove that potentially has life threatening diseases on it," said Fagala. "Honestly. You can minimize it as much as you want. It's biological and there's guidelines that need to be upheld."

But according to Fagala, only two states in the country have stringent rules related to the proper recovery and disposal of biohazardous waste. 

Florida and California both have laws in place requiring police officers to remain on the scene of an accident until the waste is removed.  No other states have such laws.

That's something Fagala wants to change. He said he frequently sees items from used gloves to syringes left behind at accident and crime scenes all over the Carolinas. 

He's tried lobbying state lawmakers for change and encourages others to join him.

"Talk to the lawmakers. That's the best thing we can do to get this out to the public and let them know what's going on," he said.

Mecklenburg County said this week's complaint was the first it had ever received about cleaning up a scene. 

The deputy director, Jeff Keith, said his crew responded immediately and takes biohazardous cleanup extremely seriously.

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