Man crushed in refuse lorry may have climbed into wheelie bin to seek shelter

Gardaí investigating the discovery of a dead Eastern European man at a waste recycling plant suspect he may have climbed into a commercial wheelie bin to escape rain on Thursday night.

Officers said the bin was emptied into a refuse lorry during a collection on Friday morning and believe the man died from crush injuries caused by the compression of waste inside the truck. However, they were waiting last night for the results of a full autopsy being carried out by assistant State pathologist Michael Curtis.

Detectives described the death as “very tragic” and believe the man, in his early 40s, may have been homeless and seeking shelter.

“It is very sad,” said one Garda source. “It wasn’t cold that night, but the rain was pretty bad and he may have opened the lid and sought shelter inside.”

He said the lifting mechanisms on refuse trucks are so noisy any shouts from the man would not have been heard by the binmen.

The lorry continued its collection through Dublin south city and arrived back at the Panda recycling plant on the Ballymount Road just before 9am. The contents were emptied on the floor of a large shed where other staff sift through the waste and separate materials. During this process, the gruesome discovery was made.

Shocked staff contacted gardaí, who sealed off the scene on arrival. They called in Dr Curtis and the Garda Technical Bureau.

Gardaí have details of the lorry’s collection route and yesterday began the lengthy process of going to each location and checking to see if any CCTV cameras might have captured the man.

“We have the location of each collection,” said one source. “Not everyone left out a bin, but we have details of each bin. We have to check each of these premises to see if there is any CCTV there that might show this poor man opening a bin and getting in.”

He said all the premises were commercial operations and estimated there were between 40-50 bin locations that morning. He said the process would take time to complete.

Gardaí believe they have identified the man, but are not releasing his name and want to contact his family first. They are in the process of contacting a number of homeless hostels in the south city to see if the man was known to staff.

It is not the first time that a man has died in this way. In Sept 2007, a homeless man, aged in his 30s, was found dead at a waste recycling centre in Limerick.

He died as a result of severe crush injuries which occurred accidentally when the container he was in was loaded onto a refuse collection truck.