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

[Liberal_in_LA]

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

[midnight]

1. K&R To bad we don't have any elected officials that know how to manage our resources

in a more equitable fashion...

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. +1,000,000

[elocs]

2. Sad, but whatever made him believe that dumpster was not going to be emptied?

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

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Maybe he thought he would wake up before the truck came? The real issue

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

[elocs]

8. Yes, but he did make a choice to sleep in that particular place.

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.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. My answer wasn't sanctimonious. I am sorry if it came across that way. I really was suggesting

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.

[bengalherder]

17. Dumpsters for specialized uses (like cardboard)are cleaner than the streets.

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...

[niyad]

20. gee, because a homeless person has SO MANY choices of where to sleep? let's see, shall I do the

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?

[bobbolink]

26. Actually, it was YOU who started the sanctimony, by judging another human being in dire straights.

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.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. The question should be... What is a 74/yo doing in the streets

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

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Fumesucker]

9. It's out of the wind/rain/snow and with the right kind of garbage it could be insulated..

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.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. +10000

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

[RKP5637]

11. Depending on where he was it might have seemed a safer place at the time than the street or

thereabouts.

[Golden Raisin]

6. There's so much tragically

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

[Fumesucker]

12. Look on the bright side...

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.

[Hannah Bell]

14. isn't it crazy? send him to the hospital then put him back on the street.

[Fumesucker]

15. Maybe a charity could buy him his own dumpster to sleep in?

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

[Hannah Bell]

18. :>) maybe one of those nice "homeless tents".

[lonestarnot]

16. Which bank stole his house?

[bengalherder]

19. All of them baby,

All of them.

That's what they're there for.

[maryf]

21. so very sad...

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

[Jackpine Radical]

22. Who the hell knows why he was sleeping in a dumpster?

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.

[bobbolink]

23. Or... and more likely, there is no place he can afford to live on the monthy pittance he receives.

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.

[Jackpine Radical]

24. I was assuming that there might be better choices than a dumpster,

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.

[bobbolink]

25. One would reasonably assume there would be better choices. I can understand that for people who

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.