Driver trapped in truck drama (From York Press)

Driver trapped in truck drama

2:32pm Thursday 12th July 2007 in News By Jeremy Small

THESE were the dramatic scenes as the emergency services descended on a North Yorkshire road to free a man trapped in an overturned 26-tonne concrete mixer.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance airlifted the man - who is understood to have suffered serious leg injuries - to Harrogate District Hospital. About 25 members of the emergency services battled for hours to free the driver from the cabin of the mixer, which overturned on an unclassified road between Helperby and Tollerton, near Easingwold, at about 11am yesterday.

It was a race against time to save the man who faced increasingly serious injuries the longer he was stuck in the cab.

Sergeant Pete Wood, of the eastern area road policing group, said because the man had been trapped by his legs for so long, almost three hours, there was concern over whether this would worsen the injuries he initially suffered.

Police said the mixer was full of concrete, about 16 tonnes, when it toppled over on the remote road between Myton Gate and Flawith.

It was feared the mixer would roll into an adjacent field, but steel cables attached to it from a local farmer's tractor prevented it from doing so - and the driver from suffering any further injuries that might have ensued.

Police were yesterday unable to confirm how the accident happened. No other vehicles were involved.

Sgt Wood said: "This is quite a rare and dramatic incident to happen in a place like this. But there's no stopping these kinds of vehicles when they start to go over because of the weight they're carrying on board."

The rescue effort involved paramedics, firefighters, police officers, as well as a trauma team from Harrogate District Hospital.

After the accident, police closed the road between Myton Gate and Flawith.