74 yo homeless man sleeping in bin, dumped into trash truck, rescued

Homeless man dumped from trash bin to garbage truck, rescued by Dallas firefighters

02:15 PM CST on Monday, January 17, 2011

A 74-year-old homeless man was seriously injured early Monday when the trash container he had been sleeping in was emptied into the back of a truck that drove off with him trapped inside, Dallas police said.

The truck driver told police he picked up his last trash container at 912 S. Ervay St. and was stopped at a red light at 1700 Cadiz St. around 5 a.m. when he heard a "noise like someone screaming," a police report said.

A witness who was walking by also heard "screaming and shouting from inside the dump truck" and called 911, the report said. Emergency crews arrived at the corner of St. Paul and Cadiz streets one block east of City Hall and began dumping garbage from the truck.

Suingenser Roosevelt was found inside the truck almost at the very front underneath the garbage, the report said.

Dallas Fire-Rescue Chief Roy Ferguson said it was a difficult rescue operation.

"The way he was hung inside the trash, we couldn't get him out; we had to dig him out," he said. "Because he was injured so badly, we had to raise him up with a Stokes basket and get him up to where we could get him out and get him on the ambulance."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/011811dnmetdumpsterinjury.c30e5349.html

in a more equitable fashion...

Because that's what they are there for--to be emptied by the garbage truck.

is that we have people who have no access to homes.

I fucking get that it's sad he is homeless, just why did he choose to sleep in a place like that where a garbage truck regularly comes to empty the dumpster?

Really, can people here get more sanctimonious? I asked a legitimate question that in no way blamed the victim for the accident, but the choice was his to pick that particular place and I wondered why he would pick that one.

that maybe he thought he would get up in time before the trucks came. Or maybe they only come on certain days and he got his dates mixed up.

As to why he chose to be in there, shelter from weather would be one guess. Also maybe it was safer in there than sleeping where someone could see him and hurt him.

Cardboard or piss?

Worth the risk?

And why should a 70-something person have to sleep on the streets? ...Although the mere $300 a month I will get from Social Security when I retire after working my ass off for years will hopefully enable me to have such an exciting life...

cottage in the hamptons, or my summer home in south beach? or the condo in aspen?

seriously, people here understand the situation with the homeless, which you, apparently, do not.

the REAL question is, WHY are there homeless in the richest, "best, greatest" country in the whole world? instead of criticizing an elderly homeless man for poor choices, why not address the REAL issue?

You had the choice to show compassion, and you choose to judge.

Judging others, especially those who are hurting, is NOT a democratic value.

Its time to do some soul-searching, elocs.

And needing a dumpster for shelter...instead blame the victim. This is why we have 74/yo in the streets, mind you.

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If it was mostly paper or boxes he was among it could act as an insulator and keep him warm.

Homeless people mostly don't have any money, they are not necessarily bone stupid.

Freeze to death or sleep in dumpster? Hmmm.. decisions, decisions.

Unless there is a form of mental illness that is prety bad, ye are correct.

thereabouts.

wrong and disturbing on so many different levels with this story.

Every cloud has a silver lining.. When he gets out of the Hospital he'll be able to keep warm for the Winter by burning his bill printout.

With that and his bill he'd be set for the winter no problem.

All of them.

That's what they're there for.

What are we going to do about homelessness?? k&r

Maybe he was mentally ill, maybe he was demented, maybe he was developmentally disabled, maybe he was drunk.

As others have pointed out, the real question is why we as a society take such poor care of each other that things like this happen.

It may not be his individual "Flaw" at all.

:hi:

And, you are right.... it is a FLAWED society that is allowing this kind of terrible situation.

as others were also assuming. But obviously I have no idea why he was there; perhaps he had no better place. Certainly he is unlikely to have had any good choices. In any case, it's a black karmic mark on our society that people end up in places like that.

haven't experienced the situation first-hand, it would seem inconceivable that this is the best he could find.

However, I have now seen so much that I am no longer willing to make that assumption. The situation is dire, and I see no hope of change on the horizon.