The truck driver pulled alive from a wreckage after two days trapped inside his vehicle has died, family members tell Global News.
The accident happened sometime on Feb. 28 when Pat Gaudet was travelling on Highway 3 in the area of Rhododendron Flats in Manning Park. It’s not clear what happened next, but Gaudet’s 140,000-pound semi-truck ended up tumbling over 100 feet down a steep embankment.
When Gaudet did not arrive at his destination on time, employees at Sutco attempted to reach him but didn’t get a response. The truck’s GPS had not registered a stop in 12 hours.
By 11 a.m. on March 1, a search was activated. RCMP and search crews drove the stretch of highway several times before someone finally noticed the truck far down the embankment.
When crews reached Gaudet, they discovered he had been hanging upside down with his legs trapped and steering wheel lodged into his abdomen. Rescue crews tried for several hours to extract the driver, but faced difficulties due to the truck’s position. He was finally extracted late Thursday night and taken to the Royal Columbian Hospital where he underwent surgery on Friday.
Family members confirm Gaudet died around 6 a.m. on Saturday.
“He’s a great support to his mother, he married Yvonne – the love of his life. He has two beautiful girls. Everybody is in shock,” his aunt Joyce McCardle said.
Gaudet worked as a truck driver in B.C. for 25 years and had been with his employer Sutco for three years. He was originally from Prince Edward Island, but lived with his family in Oliver, B.C. He turned 45 in February.
WATCH: Rumina Daya has more on the miraculous survival and rescue of a trucker who spent two days trapped in his vehicle before he was discovered and rescued yesterday.