Virginia can call it's self a tooth fairy but it is still a state. And Norfolk is a city and in no way sovereign. No matter what these dimwits want to profess
The City of Alexandria was immune for an alleged rape committed by a police office while on duty. (See Niese v. City of Alexandria, 264 Va. 230 (2002).
This PRECISE issue has been litigated before in Virginia. See Parada-Segova v. Barlow, 101 Va . Cir. 323 (2019) in which a garbage truck ran over a pedestrian in Fairfax County. Both the County AND the driver were held to be immune.
In fact, this issue has been litigated in Norfolk before. See Turner v. City of Norfolk and Timothy Banks, 80 Va. Cir. 369 (2010). There a city trash truck driver hit another vehicle. The driver didn't even bother with a claim against the City there, because the law is so clear in Virginia and conceded that the doctrine of sovereign immunity barred her claim against the city. The issue before the circuit court was whether the doctrine of sovereign immunity barred the driver from recovering damages against the city employee for his alleged simple negligence. The circuit court concluded that the doctrine of sovereign immunity barred the driver's action against the city employee.
This issue is complex. In Virginia, the Commonwealth has partially waived immunity for municipalities (as opposed to counties). In short, if a City and its employees are engaged in "governmental functions" as opposed to "proprietary functions" then they are immunity, if the opposite is true, there may be liability.
The operation of trash trucks has consistently been held to be a governmental function.