An injured trucker was found face down on the side of the road after escaping his overturned rig in New York on Tuesday evening.
The accident happened on July 24th at around 6:30 p.m. in Pavilion, New York.
According to The Daily News Online, the tractor trailer was traveling along Route 63 just west of Cook Road when the driver says he swerved to avoid a deer in the road, sending the rig crashing into a utility pole before overturning on the grassy shoulder.
Emergency personnel were soon called to the scene.
“I jumped down and there was a man laying about 20 feet away from the truck, face down, complaining of back and neck injuries,” said David Clor of the Pavilion Fire Department.
“We rolled him over, put him on a backboard, and put a C-collar on him to stabilize his neck. We waited for Mercy Flight to come and get him,” Clor continued.
The driver, still alert, requested Clor accompany him on the life flight as they prepared him for transport.
“We bonded a little bit together and he didn’t want me to leave his side,” Clor said.
“I told him I can’t fly on Mercy Flight, that there’s another guy named Dave on Mercy Flight, and he was going to be taken care of. But he was determined for me to go… He had a lot of injuries. He was complaining of back injuries and head injuries. It was serious injuries.”
“(The driver) doesn’t remember where he was coming from,” Clor continued.
“He told me he came off the 390 and was going to the 90, which they all do.”
Electricity was knocked out in surrounding areas due to the snapped electricity pole but was restored around the same time that the wreck was cleared – approximately an hour later.
The big rig was hauling juice at the time of the crash though none of it was spilled in the accident.