Truck sails off mountain road, wedges between tree and boulder, NC rescuers say

A dramatic rescue was staged in the middle of the night after a pickup plunged off a mountain road and got wedged between a tree and a boulder, according to volunteer firefighters in western North Carolina.

The crash happened around 2:45 a.m. Saturday on N.C. 105 in the Linville area, and closer inspection revealed the wreckage was volatile due to containers of oxygen and propane, according to a Feb. 23 news release.

“A passenger was able to self-extricate and call 911. He then climbed to the top of the bank to flag down responders,” the Linville Volunteer Fire Department reported in a Facebook post.

“The pickup had flipped and landed on its top about 30 feet below road level. A tree had fallen on top of the truck, and one person remained entrapped in the cab. ... With a tree on top of the truck and a large boulder underneath, traditional extrication equipment was not accessible to the patient.”

Additional resources (and two other fire departments) were called to the scene, and “a rigging crew set up a two-line system” to lower rescuers and extrication equipment down to the truck, officials said.

“Eventually, the patient was disentangled from the steering column, clutch pedal, and dashboard of the truck and was removed from the vehicle and placed in a litter,” the department said. “He was then raised back up to the road by a haul system and transported to a nearby medical facility.“

The man’s injuries were not life-threatening, and he is “expected to make a full recovery,” officials said.

Among the hundreds of comments posted on the fire department’s Facebook page were expressions of gratitude by the driver’s family.

“You all saved my little brother,” one man wrote. “He is doing okay, just broken bones and sore.”

Linville is about a 110-mile drive northwest from uptown Charlotte.