Oak Trees Are Very Unforgiving

[BigWheelArchives]

8-20-06

Received a call from Westport Police to respond to Division Road near Horseneck Beach for a large box truck that was loaded and went off the side of the road down the embankment and impacted a large tree.

 

The force of the collision was so great that the tree ended up 3 feet into the truck box. Upon our arrival, we discovered that the driver had an iguana that flew across the cab and got caught in the door jam. We watched the driver, who had very minor injury's, try to get the iguana free from the door jam. This iguana was not happy he kept biting the driver as he tried to release it. The driver had more injury's from the iguana than the crash.

 

Our initial assessment we discovered the front axle pushed way back under the cab and also a large rock under the base pan. The area was swampy and the truck was in standing water. We decided to lift the truck with our 60 ton rotator and swing it back off the oak tree then spin it around back onto the road so it could be hooked up to the wrecker. We also had to use our cut off saw to cut the shifter that was jammed in gear under the dash board. The other alternative would be to lay in the swamp for the driveshaft or pull an axle and leak grease into the water. We decided to cut the shifter and pop it into neutral. After the truck was recovered we transported it to our Freetown location.