Trashed guy ends up trashed–and almost dead.
A trash collector had just emptied a commercial trash bin into his truck and was about to activate its compactor.
That’s when William M. Bowen woke up and began screaming.
The driver investigated and found Bowen standing on top of the load. You’d never guess, but the driver said that Bowen was “extremely intoxicated.”
Bowen admitted to police he’d been drinking with buddies at a Muncie, Indiana bar until 3 a.m. and didn’t recall how he ended up inside the trash bin. He also wouldn’t tell police who his “friends” were.
My friend Randy Cassingham, who writes the column from which these antics are often taken, tells me that ending up in a trash bin after a night of heavy drinking is an all-too-common story. Fortunately, the stories don’t usually end in death. On the other hand, they are unlikely to result in sobriety–for either the victim or “friends”–because no one was seriously hurt and the culprits who put him there suffer no legal consequences. I’m not usually in favor of more laws, but every once in a while a compelling reason can be found for one: “Anyone who wakes up in a trash compactor shall, under threat of the usual consequences for misdemeanor, name the scoundrels who may have put him there.” At least get their bodies in court, where they can be told by a judge, “You drank. Your behaviors might have resulted in death. Therefore, your behaviors indicate alcohol or other-drug addiction. Now get sober so there is no ‘next’ time, where the consequences might be far more devastating.”
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