Man gets trashed 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
Man gets trashed, barely escapes
landfill
By GRAEME SMITH
Thursday, August 1, 2002 – Print Edition,
Page A6
A man in Thunder Bay, Ont., escaped
from a sticky situation yesterday, after he fell asleep in a dumpster, got
crushed inside a garbage truck and was nearly hit by a bulldozer at a landfill.
The 37-year-old was not seriously hurt, but his strange adventure became a
hot topic of conversation around the Northern Ontario city, as locals tried
to guess how he survived the ordeal.
It began around 2 a.m., when the unidentified man passed out in a steel
waste bin behind a doughnut shop, apparently after drinking heavily.
A garbage truck pulled up at 7 a.m., lifted the bin, tossing its contents into
the truck's compactor, and dropping the man about 2½ metres into the
vehicle.
The truck continued on its route, picking up six more loads and, with each
fresh trash deposit into the compactor, a metal blade automatically packed
the garbage against the back of the truck.
"He was squished up pretty good," said Norm Gale, a spokesman for
Superior North Emergency Medical Services.
The truck's driver later told his boss that he hadn't heard any banging or
screaming from inside the vehicle. The man had apparently been pinned
amid the refuse with his right arm trapped behind his back. He used his left
arm to punch a breathing space in front of his face.
Police say the man was lucky the driver skipped a few dumpsters during the
45-minute trip to the landfill.
"A few more tossed in and he probably would have suffocated," Thunder
Bay police spokesman Andy Weiler said.
When the truck unloaded its brick of compacted garbage, a bulldozer at the
landfill began breaking it up, as usual, until the man wriggled out of the heap,
narrowly avoiding the huge shovel.
"It gave everybody a shock," said equipment operator Wayne Olesthuk.
"He could have been torn apart."
The man seemed most concerned about the whereabouts of his drinking
companions from the night before.
"He thought they were in the dumpster, too," Mr. Olesthuk said.
One of the workers called 911, and paramedics arrived to find the man had
suffered injuries to his shoulder, knees and chest, but was not seriously hurt.
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Submitted on 08/02/2002
Submitted by:
Betty Braaksma
Reference:
Globe and Mail August 1, 2002
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