FedEx Driver Falls 75 Feet Off Bridge After Stopping To Help Stranded Driver
A FedEx driver who stopped to help a stranded driver had to be rescued after falling 75 feet off of a bridge in North Carolina.
Jeremiah Cribb was one of two FedEx contract truck drivers who stopped to help a stranded motorist on the bridge over the Yadkin River in Rowan County around 2:30 a.m., WBTV reported.
While they were helping the motorist, they saw a tractor-trailer coming toward them. Cribb was worried the truck would not see them in order to stop in time, so he jumped over what he thought was a concrete median.
“I was flashing my light on and off, and he was in the left lane,” Cribb said to WSOC-TV. “(The driver of the tractor-trailer) didn’t merge, and we didn’t know if he was gonna hit the car. But, I kinda had a feeling that he was, and he smashed into the car.”
“When I realized he was going to hit the car, I just reacted on instinct. it’s pitch black dark. I thought I was hopping over a median,” Cribb told WBTV.
But instead of landing softly on the other side of a median, Cribb said he “started free-falling” 75 feet and ultimately landed on a dirt bank.
Delayed: 2:34am 2/19- SFD assisted @millersferry, @RowanCountyES EMS & Rescue Squad with a rescue assignment NB I-85, Yadkin River bridge. Crews extricated a patient 75′ from the river bed sandbar. Extrication time was 45 minutes, patient transferred conscious w/ serious injuries pic.twitter.com/mEA8y5XxBW
— Salisbury NC Fire (@SalisburyNCFire) February 19, 2020
Emergency personnel from the Miller’s Ferry and Salisbury Fire Departments and Rowan Rescue responded to the scene and it took about 45 minutes to rescue the good Samaritan.
Firefighter Jacob Vodochodsky rappelled off the bridge with a medical bag to reach Cribb and pull him to safety, according to WSOC-TV.
MUST SEE: This picture shows an emergency worker coming to the #rescue of a local FedEx driver who fell 75-feet off the Yadkin River bridge on I-85. I talked to the victim who SURVIVED the fall and rescue workers. See this truly amazing story at 5 & 6pm. @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/NmkfLwqR2U
— Tina Terry (@TinaTerryWSOC9) February 19, 2020
“I gave him a little pinch on the leg, because the way he was laying there, looked like he may have been paralyzed from that great of a fall,” Vodochodsky said. “He felt it.”
The firefighter also checked to see if Cribb had a concussion because “he had no idea where he was at.”
“He didn’t know what happened. He had no clue where he was at,” Vodochodsky told WBTV. “We shared a couple of personal moments and let him know he was alright. We kept telling him he was doing great and we’d get him out of there.”
First responders said that Cribb was in good enough shape that they were able to stand him up and bring him back up the bridge, WSOC reported.
“To be honest, that’s entirely miraculous,” Salisbury Fire Battalion Chief Nicholas Martin said.
Cribb was taken to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem with three fractured ribs and a collapsed lung, but he is grateful to be alive.
“I just thank God I’m alive,” Cribb told WSOC. “Words can’t describe it. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”
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