An unusual case of death using a compacting machine

In the large series of forensic injury, death from accidental mechanical asphyxiation in adults is rare and is usually secondary to suffocation, aspiration, strangulation caused by entrapment of clothing in machinery (deaths at work) or asphyxiation in the course of erotic maneuvers. Compression asphyxia is a form of violent mechanical asphyxia in which the asphyxiated insult is produced by means of a compression and constriction mechanism of the thoracic cage. The authors report an unusual case of asphyxiated death from chest compression resulting from the action of a compacting machine, which occurred in a person who had fallen asleep in a waste bin.