A trucker is recovering in hospital after a crash and heroic rescue on the Coquihalla Highway.
Three semi trucks were involved in the crash on the highway near the Portia Overpass on Monday night.
A truck’s cab was separated from its trailer and went over an embankment, crashing down some 30 metres.
“The semi was crumpled up pretty badly against some trees,” Dan McAuliffe of Chilliwack Search and Rescue said. “If the trees hadn’t have been there, there was a creek it would have gone into.”
McAuliffe said the truck was so badly damaged “you couldn’t recognize it as a semi.”
“It was pretty banged up. It must have rolled over more than once on the way down.”
It took search-and-rescue crews two hours to rig safety lines, free the driver from the cab, and pull him back up to a waiting ambulance.
McAuliffe said the driver suffered a broken femur and other injuries.
“He’s lucky to be alive.”
— With files from Geoff Hastings
Comments