Man Survives Being Crushed Twice in Garbage Truck

An Alabama man remarkably survived after being crushed twice inside a garbage truck during the early hours of a pickup route.

Emergency responders in Jackson received an alert about a person trapped in a garbage truck around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. Officials suspect the truck’s compactor crushed the man at two different locations—the first at a KFC on Highway 43 and the second at the Hampton Inn nearby.

The truck driver first noticed the man while approaching a Popeyes restaurant. The gates were closed, which required drivers to exit their vehicles. It was during this time that the driver heard someone calling for assistance.

Jackson Fire Chief John Brown mentioned that the locked gate was crucial to the situation. “We were really lucky that the Popeyes gate was closed,” he said. “The driver got out of the truck and heard a man in the back calling for help, so he immediately shut everything down.”

Brown remarked that he had never encountered a scenario like this in his 40 years with the fire department. “I’ve seen a lot, but this is something else,” he added.

Volunteer firefighter Mendy Boldin responded, anticipating a serious trauma case. Surprisingly, she found the man in a stable condition. “We were all in shock because we thought we would have to perform serious treatment, but he was okay,” Boldin recalled. “It felt like a miracle.”

The survival of individuals in such circumstances is extraordinarily challenging. Garbage truck compactors generate immense pressure—between 2,000 to 3,000 pounds per square inch, and can exert over 80 tons of force. Similar incidents in the past have resulted in fatalities, such as a tragic case in December 2016 in Tallahassee, Florida, where two men lost their lives inside a compactor.

Authorities believe the man might have been homeless, trying to escape the cold, which led him to crawl into a dumpster.