Crime & Safety

Truck Driver Airlifted After Firefighters Rescue Him From Under His Trailer

Prince George's firefighters found a man trapped between his truck and shifting gravel in Brandywine, MD.

Prince George's County firefighters worked to rescue a man trapped between his tractor-trailer truck and gravel in Brandywine, MD.

The driver fell out of his truck door when his tractor-trailer tipped over while he was dumping gravel into a pit in the 14700 block of Gibbons Church Road, according to Prince George's Fire/EMS Department Chief Spokesman Mark Brady. 

The shifting nature of gravel, however created problems for the firefighters trying to extract the man from under his truck, Brady said. They were unable to inflate airbags under the truck to create space, he said, because the gravel could have shifted and created more problems.

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Instead firefighters used hydraulic equipment, first trying to secure the truck as best they could on the gravel, Brady said. Then using hydraulic cutters and spreaders called the Jaws of Life, piece by piece, they began to cut away the truck's cab—so they could free the injured man, according to Brady.

Maryland State Police stood by with a helicopter ready to fly the man out to a local trauma center.

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In 40 minutes, the firefighters rescued the man from under his truck, and he was airlifted to the hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries, Brady said. He had fractures and other injuries to his legs and lower extremities, he added, but it could potentially have been more serious had he fallen onto a harder surface instead of gravel.


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