Homeless Man Compacted in Garbage Truck

[Champ]

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - A homeless man who fell asleep in a commercial trash bin was dumped into the back of a garbage truck Friday and compacted — but escaped serious injury, officials said.

"It's really quite miraculous the guy got out without serious injury," said Bryan Weinert, program director for Ann Arbor's solid waste department.

Weinert said there is a large, dull steel blade that pushes the waste against the wall of the truck to maximize space. He said a person could be protected by trash that is hard to compact.

Lt. Scott Robertson of the Ann Arbor fire department said he did not know how much of the compacting process was completed before the man was discovered.

"Just being in the Dumpster and being dumped would have been a heck of a ride, let alone being compacted," Robertson told The Ann Arbor News.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=816&ncid=816&e=2&u=/ap/20041217/ap_on_fe_st/garbage_escape

[kostya]

1. Oh, oh! This might be the beginning of a new youth trend!

:toast:

[parkenyc]

2. This is absolutely horrible.

Something should be done about homelessness, instead of wasting so much money on Halliburton, KBR, etc.

[skygazer]

3. You know, seriously, this is something I worry about at my job

We have a large trash compactor behind the store and it's supposed to be locked at all times. But people bring stuff out and don't lock it afterwards. There are a number of homeless people in the area and I've always worried about one of them climbing in there drunk or something and getting crunched. Not a nice thought.

[vpigrad]

4. I think this is the fourth time I've read about...

this type of thing happening since Bushie became president. You never heard as many bad stories about the homeless when Clinton was president.

[skygazer]

5. That's because all you heard about on the news

Was stuff about Clinton and Monica and Whitewater and how many burgers he ate and what an unattractive suit Hillary was wearing and....

[Mojambo]

6. I thought that was the new government policy

for dealing with homelessness?