A man has died from severe injuries after he climbed into a recycling bin and was crushed in a bin lorry, an inquest has heard. Vitalij Maceljuch, 36, a Czech national who was born in Ukraine, was thought to have climbed into the waste bin outside a Wren store in Chester in the middle of the night in May 2024. Ruthin Coronor’s Court heard that the 36-year-old was caught on CCTV looking into the bin for cardboard shortly before it was collected by a Biffa lorry, crushed and dropped off at a recycling depot in Alltami near Mold, Flintshire.
Mr Maceljuch appeared to have fallen asleep inside the bin, with recovered CCTV from the lorry showing a body being dropped into the waste deposit. The 36-year-old was found dead at the Alltami depot with severe neck and head injuries, which an assistant coroner determined had likely been caused by being crushed.
Lorry driver Richard Connolly told the inquest he had looked into the bin and called out in case anyone was inside, as well as shaking it on his lorry’s forks before tipping it out, the BBC reports.
He maintained that he did not see Mr Maceljuch falling into the vehicle and was also not aware of his presence when dropping the waste in Alltami, where it was left in a large pile before being scooped up by a claw machine onto a conveyer belt.
Employees at the depot initially thought the body they saw on the belt was a mannequin, but called North Wales Police after realising that it was human remains.
The post-mortem examination also confirmed that Mr Maceljuch had cannabis and amphetamines in his blood at the time of his death, which the inquest heard may have contributed to a “lack of awareness of his surroundings”.
There were warning signs outside the Wren branch warning against entering the bins on danger of death.
David Lewis, assistant coroner for North Wales East and Central, concluded that the death had been caused by misadventure.
“Misadventure is defined as when actions which were intentional had unintended consequences, such as Mr Maceljuch placing himself into the bin without intending to end his life or the actions of the lorry driver who picked up the bin without appreciating that anyone was inside,” he said.
It was also concluded that nobody at the site or the lorry driver had breached health and safety legislation in relation to the incident.
