Man trapped in garbage truck freed after 2.5 hours; Hospitalized with critical injuries

A man became trapped in a garbage truck on Schiedamse Vesthof in the center of Rotterdam on Monday. He was likely sleeping in a blue wastepaper container when it was emptied into the garbage truck. It took emergency services nearly 2.5 hours to free the man. He was rushed to a hospital in critical condition, AD reported.

The incident occurred at around 10:00 a.m. The man’s legs were trapped by the tailgate of the garbage truck, a spokesperson for Veiligheidsregio Rotterdam-Rijnmond, the safety office that covers the region’s emergency services, told the newspaper.

Two construction workers witnessed the incident. “We saw the two garbage collectors taking the container to the truck, bumping along the road. They even kicked it. You would think that would wake the man up,” they told AD. The garbage collectors also looked inside the container but didn’t see the man. He was presumably lying under the cardboard.

The garbage collectors tipped the container onto the truck and hit the button for the grabber to start rotating. That’s when the screaming started, one of the witnesses said. The garbage collectors immediately pressed the emergency stop and called the emergency services, who responded in large numbers.

The rescue proved complicated. Emergency workers tried various tools to pry open and cut parts off the vehicle to free the man. “The technology of such a garbage truck system is tricky,” the spokesperson for the Veiligheidsregio said. A specialized mechanic was called in, who let the grabber go little by little.

The man was freed at 12:20 p.m. He was attended to by ambulance workers and a specialized doctor before being transported to the hospital with critical injuries.

The police offered victim support to the garbage collectors and witnesses. “This was terrible to see,” the construction workers told AD. “It is incredibly sad that that man had to sleep in a paper container. You must have a very difficult life then.”