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In the early morning hours of Jan. 30, 1997, garbage sorters at the Metro
Waste Transfer station in Northwest Portland noticed an unusual item amid the
piles of refuse on the conveyor belt that fed the gigantic garbage shredder:
What they saw was not paper, plastic, glass or metal. It was a dead body. The corpse was later identified as Richard Phelps, a 47-year-old
transient who had apparently been sleeping in a dumpster in downtown Portland
when a garbage truck emptied the dumpster into its hopper, then compacted its
load en route to the transfer station. The medical examiner concluded that
Phelps had been crushed to death. Homeless advocates say such gruesome accidents are not
uncommon--especially in winter, when people are regularly turned away from
emergency shelters. "This has happened a number of times," says
Chuck Currie, director of the Goose Hollow Family Shelter. "It's a regular event," agrees Dr. Neal Rendleman, who has
treated the down and out for almost 20 years. Six people have been crushed to death in garbage trucks in Oregon
since 1988, according to state death records, and a transfer-station
supervisor is quoted in legal documents saying she has heard of eight to 10
survivors arriving at Metro waste stations in the same period. Because the victims tend to be homeless, most accidents involving
trash compactors generate little interest beyond a few lines in the back
pages of the local paper. But this case may turn out differently. Phelps'
sister, Barbara Bassett, has filed a wrongful-death suit in Multnomah County
seeking $10 million in punitive damages from USA Waste of Oregon for failing
to take precautions to forestall these tragedies. For example, trash haulers
could install locks or inspect dumpsters before unloading them into their
trucks. "The company knows there are human beings in dumpsters,"
Bassett's attorney, Greg Kafoury, declared last week in a pre-trial motion
before Judge Nely Johnson. "There's a risk that there's someone inside.
Were the precautions adequate or inadequate?" Kafoury says the subsidiary of Waste Management Inc. has taken
"no steps whatsoever" despite knowing about the episodes. The company declined to comment on the case. But last week its
attorneys insisted that dump-truck accidents are rare and that the company,
which reported profits of $503 million last year, is not a social-service
agency. "What we do for a living is collecting garbage," said
lawyer Jeff Johnson. "Greg Kafoury wants to put corporate America on
trial--that's what this is all about." Like many homeless people, Phelps suffered from severe mental illness.
A commercial photographer who held a master's degree in advertising, he
developed symptoms of schizophrenia in the 1980s, lost his family and his
business, and wound up on the streets of Chicago. With the help of his sister, he made a partial recovery in 1996 and
moved to Olympia. He called her from Portland on Jan. 26, 1997, with a
confused story about losing his car. She did not learn he was dead until
several months later. The case is scheduled for trial next month. As WW went to
press, it remained unclear whether the two sides might reach an out-of-court
settlement. Originally published 11/27/2002 Find this story at www.wweek.com/story.php?story=3369 |
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A California woman is taking the nation's biggest
garbage-hauling company to court in Multnomah County this week over the death
of her schizophrenic brother, who suffocated inside a trash compactor six
years ago. Richard Phelps, 47, was apparently sleeping in a
dumpster in the small hours of Jan. 30, 1997, when a garbage truck operated
by USA Waste of Oregon emptied the dumpster into its hopper, and then
compacted its load--with Phelps inside--en route to the Metro waste-transfer
station in Northwest Portland. His lifeless body was discovered on a conveyor
belt (see "Crushed by Indifference?," WW, Nov. 27, 2002). Barbara Bassett, Phelps' sister, seeks $10
million in punitive damages for "reckless and outrageous
indifference" to the lives of homeless people. The family's attorney,
Greg Kafoury, told jurors Tuesday in Multnomah County Court, "They know
if their practices do not change, human lives will be at risk." The defendant, USA Waste of Oregon, is a wholly
owned subsidiary of garbage goliath Waste Management Inc., which last year
posted profits of $822 million. USA Waste says it cannot be liable for people
who crawl into dumpsters. "Our client is not responsible for this
death," says Jeffrey A. Johnson, the firm's attorney. Six people have been crushed to death in garbage
trucks in the state since 1988, according to Oregon death records, and a
transfer-station supervisor is quoted in legal documents saying she has heard
of another eight to 10 survivors arriving at Metro waste stations in that
time. Because the victims are almost by definition
homeless, these accidents typically generate scant attention. But Bassett
hopes her lawsuit will force garbage companies to install better safeguards
to prevent similar accidents. A commercial photographer who held a master's
degree in advertising, Phelps developed symptoms of schizophrenia in the
1980s, lost his business and his family, and wound up on the streets of
Chicago. With his sister's help, Phelps made a partial
recovery. He called Bassett from Portland on Jan. 26, 1997, with a confused
story about losing his car. She didn't learn he was dead until several months
later. The trial, which is expected to last two weeks,
was scheduled for November but delayed while the two sides sought an
out-of-court settlement. Originally published 5/21/2003 Find this story at www.wweek.com/story.php?story=3928 |
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