Using shovels to dig away sand and an axe to break a windshield, firefighters early Wednesday were able to pull a trapped driver out of an overturned truck on a beach near Mission Bay before paramedics transported the injured man to a hospital.
The incident began shortly after 6:50 a.m. when the man was found trapped inside his overturned camper truck near San Diego Mission Bay Resort on East Mission Bay Drive, a police spokesperson said.
Firefighters and lifeguards who rushed to the scene found that the man had driven his truck onto the sand next to a dock, and the truck had toppled over onto its side.
Video shot by OnScene TV showed the man awake and conscious, his leg poking through the truck’s broken front windshield while his arm appeared to be wedged out the side window. A man and a woman talked with the injured driver before emergency crews arrived. At one point, the woman held the victim’s hand and reassured him, “Robert, you’re great, you’re OK.”
“It was very tough access to get down to where the vehicle was located,” Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Jeff Phillips told OnScene TV. “The victim was pinned and trapped inside the vehicle… It was embedded half in the sand and half on a wooden walkway.”
Video showed firefighters using tools to stabilize the truck and dig out sand before five of them worked together to pull the man out of the side window. Medics placed a breathing mask over his face, and he was transported by ambulance to a hospital. Phillips said he didn’t know his condition.
No other information was immediately available.
