A 19-year-old woman struck and killed by a private sanitation truck driver in Queens had stopped to pick up a cake for her little sister’s birthday, friends and relatives said Tuesday.
That final selfless act put Jannath Nishath in the path of the hulking turning trash truck about 11:55 p.m. Sunday — and cut short her promising life.
“Her little sister asked her to buy the cake,” said Amin Mehedi, a family friend. “She went to the store and she was coming home. Family members were waiting and wondering why she wasn’t home yet. One of the sisters found her location because her last phone location was there.”
Relatives said Nishath was on her way home from her part-time job as a cashier in a Jamaica parking garage when she stopped for the cake and was struck. She was a student at City College in Manhattan, her family says.
The death is especially hard on Nishath’s sister, whose birthday will forever be associated with the young woman’s death, Mehedi said.
“We are so shocked this happened,” Mehedi said. “We never expect for someone so young to lose their life. She was a hardworking girl. She was going to college.”
Nishath was crossing 62nd St. in Woodside when she was hit by a Royal Waste Services garbage truck whose driver was turning off Roosevelt Ave. She died at the scene, about a half-mile from her home.
Friends and relatives gathered at the Baitul Jannah Masjid mosque not far from her home, where mourners said their last goodbyes Tuesday.
Speakers at her funeral, including her father, Helal Ahmed, who is the mosque’s imam, shared emotional tributes.
“The entire family is devastated,” said Mohammed Siddik, the victim’s cousin.
“She was a very nice, very brilliant student. She was very soft and very caring to her parents. She was close with her father and at a young age she wanted to get a job to support her family.”
The 38-year-old driver remained at the scene. She faced no immediate charges.
Nishath is survived by her parents and four sisters.
“She is the second daughter,” said Athaur Rahman Salim, another family friend. “She attended this mosque her whole life.”
