KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A man was rescued out of a garbage truck by officers from the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety on Monday morning.
Police said they were sent to Portage Street near Collins Street around 4:45 a.m. on a report of a man stuck inside a garbage truck. The driver called police when he heard a man screaming from the back of the truck.
Fortunately, the driver had not compressed the garbage, which saved the man from serious injury or death.
"Apparently, the trapped man had been sleeping in the dumpster, and failed to get out in time when it was being emptied into the garbage truck," Kalamazoo police said in a release.
Officers who initially responded requested help from the KDPS Technical Rescue Team. Crews used ladders to climb down into the body of the truck from the top of the container. The man was helped out of a small space and lowered to medical units by a rope from the top of the truck.
The man was transported to the hospital for minor injuries.
It took about 90 minutes to safely extricate the trapped man from the garbage truck. This was the first activation of the Kalamazoo Tech Rescue Team, which has been operating for about a year. The team consists of 21 members from the police department who are trained in rope, confined space, trench and collapse rescue.
Anyone with information on this incident is encouraged to call the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety at 269-488-8911, Silent Observer at 269-343-2100 or www.kalamazoosilentobserver.com.
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