June 26--PRINCE GEORGE -- A man who flung himself over an Interstate 295 guard rail to escape a tractor-trailer was released from the hospital Monday, police say.
The man, who was not identified, fell roughly 100 feet into a ravine near mile marker 13 just after 1:30 a.m. Sunday, said Brad Owens, director of Fire, EMS & Emergency Services for Prince George County.
"He was trying to avoid the tractor-trailer and jumped over the wall assuming that there was level ground on the other side," Owens said.
The man tumbled past trees and debris before landing in a marshy patch of ground. Battered by the fall and unable to walk, the man dialed 911.
"He was able to tell us what had happened to him, where he was, he was very stable," Owens said.
His fall was the third mishap in a string of three accidents set off when a deer meandered onto the 70 mph stretch of interstate in Prince George County, said Virginia State Police Sgt. Thomas Molnar.
"The man had pulled over to help a traveling companion who was involved in another accident," Molnar said. "This was kind of an involved incident."
Molnar said that the chain of accidents started when a driver heading northbound swerved to avoid a deer and plowed into a guard rail. A second wreck occurred when another driver heading northbound slowed down to avoid the deer carcass and disabled vehicle. A driver traveling behind the second vehicle plowed into the automobile as it decelerated, further encumbering the stretch of I-295.
The fourth driver, who pulled over to assist a companion involved in the second accident, incurred the most serious injuries of the bunch. He was standing near the roadside when a tractor-trailer barreling towards the crowd came too close for comfort, Molnar said. He took a literal leap of faith to avoid the threat.
"He did sustain injuries but he could have been very, very seriously hurt," Molnar said.
Emergency responders from Prince George County, Hopewell and the Crater Regional Technical Rescue Team worked together to recover the man from the ravine.
"It was a very technical rescue," Owens said. "It was difficult for the team to get to him because he was in between the two sections of road."
The ravine that responders inched down to access the victim was too steep to regress with an injured man. They strapped him to a basket with a rescuer and hoisted the pair to safety with a series of pulleys, Owens said.
The man was driven to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond for treatment. Emergency workers also transported a victim of an earlier crash to a nearby hospital.
- K. Burnell Evans may be reached at 804-722-5155 or [email protected].
Copyright 2012 - The Progress-Index, Petersburg, Va.
