There are many reasons why you might want to call the fire department. Your house might be on fire, or a petrol tanker may have just overturned. Or, like this one driver of a Ford F-150, you might be stuck 10 feet in the air and in serious need of rescue.
This came to our attention thanks to a Facebook post from Station 41 of the Wolfhurst Fire Department in Bridgeport, Ohio. The agency readily admits it doesn’t often post about incidents that it responds to, but this one was simply too noteworthy to ignore.
It all went down on the evening of August 25. The fire department was called to a vehicular accident, wherein a Ford truck had somehow wound up stuck 10 feet in the air. The driver was inside, unharmed, but unable to get down as the vehicle was incredibly unstable. The job for the fire crew? Steady the truck so the driver could climb to safety.
Photos posted by the fire department tell some but not all of the story. The images show us that large telescoping struts were used to secure the vehicle and prevent it from rocking side to side. Wheel chocks were also employed on the rear wheels, along with chains and ratchet straps which helped to create a tight frame of support underneath the truck. This allowed the driver to exit the vehicle without it tipping as their weight moved to one side.
The fire department reports no one was injured in the incident or during the rescue. Amazingly, the driver was not only unharmed but was able to drive the F-150 away afterward, indicating both they and the truck suffered minimal to no damage.
There’s just one thing the fire department left out—how did the truck end up in the air in the first place? It appears the driver drove up guy wires or support cables for a telephone and/or power cable pole, and given the incident occurred at night, it’s plausible the driver simply didn’t see the cables.
The Autopian has contacted Station 41 for more information, and will update this article accordingly.
Ultimately, this incident teaches us multiple things. For a start, Ford trucks apparently pretty darn resilient in cases like these. Furthermore, it’s best to wait for assistance if you find you and your car stuck ten feet in the air and wobbling. Stay safe out there!
Image credits: Wolfhurst Fire Department – Station 41
The most surprising bit is that this incident did not involve alcohol.
Probably a cell phone thou.
I had someone do this right in front of me a few years ago. Pickup drifted off the side of the road, went right up the guy wire like that. But unlike this guy who got really lucky and must have hit it dead center, that guy went crashing down sideways off the wire and ended up on his roof. Thankfully, the airbags did their job and he was more shook up than anything else. A few cuts and bruises. I helped him get the door open and get out, then called 911 for him.
Someone needs their license taken away…
Gives you perspective on just how strong and tied down those guy wires are.
Oh yeah, I had someone following behind me flip over that way in central Pennsylvania last year, was very weird, I didn’t even hear it happen. Checked rear view mirror, Sentra was tailgating as it had been for 12 miles, checked again, Sentra was upside down on someone’s front yard, having driven up power pole guy wires and into the pole, before falling off and tipping over. The pole itself was undamaged. Still no idea how that happened, with how close the car was, seems like he backed off slightly only to immediately wreck
I drove by an identical situation. It was a sedan though. There is a corner that drops down left just at the corner. Hit it too fast and you end up off the side of the road and right onto the guy wire for the power pole. EMS had just arrived, so I couldn’t stop to get a picture, but is was cool to see a vehicle perched in the air.
Stuff like this makes me appreciate the fact that emergency personnel are always training for something silly & unforseen.
I get up and nothin gets me down
Built Ford Tough, its the toughest around
Can’t you see me hanging here
just waiting for the wrecker machine?
This ain’t the worst that you seen,
Can’t you see what I mean?
Might as well Jump.
I’ve seen it more often than I’d like to admit in Tennessee.
Cars on their roof too.
This driver was PERMITTED to drive home? Even if they hit the guy wires by accident, that doesn’t change the fact that they were piloting their f150 30+mph, down the sidewalk, 12″ away from some parked cars, directly towards a telephone pole. And they weren’t doing that by accident. Edit: They were not on the right hand sidewalk either. They were driving on the wrong side of the wrong side of the road.
What is wrong with the firefighters of Station 41 of the Wolfhurst Fire Department in Bridgeport, Ohio?
I hope he at least got a field sobriety test first.
Things are really looking up for this guy.
He must’ve been wired when they got him down.
Hey, he achieved the pole position, after all.
When I was really young between 1st and 2nd grade if I remember correctly, I came across a sight like this just down the street from my house by my school’s playground. I happened to be riding my bike and there is was sitting up in the air just like that. I was surprised to see that the cable was holding it so well but knew enough to not get close.
Didn’t know F150s were drive-by-wire.
I chortled aloud.
Hey, who needs roads? Just drive on the grass and hope there’s nothing in the way.
If we’re lucky, this person did not (and will not) procreate.
HOW?! I really want to know…more than Whitney Houston (RIP)…
When your Carolina Squat install goes wrong
Time to clickbait this article:
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How did I miss this story!? I live 20 minutes from there. Absolutely insane to see somewhere so close be posted on a site like this.
That’s some 9-1-1 Lone Star shit right there. My wife watches it and I’m constantly amazed at the bonkers “this could never happen in real life” situations they come up with. Jokes on me, I guess.
In 9-1-1 Lone Star, I feel like this truck would get stuck on some power lines that catch on fire and lead directly to a manure factory, which then explodes spews manure into a nearby field full of high schoolers who are all making out under the stars. And of course, the sheer force of the flying manure sends one of said high schoolers in the air as he lands on one of the nearby convertible tops, getting stuck and needing help from the shockingly good looking emergency response professionals.
Shockingly good looking. And, yeah, you’re right.
Another example of why you don’t text and drive.
This looks like the location: 56334 National Rd – Google Maps
The driver must have been going way too fast in too much truck for their skills to end up there.
Unless their goal was to ride up the wire. In which case their skill and truck were perfect for the job.
The used car lot next door couldn’t afford a fancy car turntable to show off this F-150…so they improvised.
Damn, that guy was wired!
I remember reading a story years ago about a driver who ran up a guy wire like this, but at high speed. The car did a pirouette and left a skid mark on a No Parking sign without knocking it down!
Probably not the same story you are referring to, but back when I lived in Houston in the late 90s and early 2000s, I saw two cars that had driven up the guy wires and flipped over.
One happened on a side road near a big city park where a drunk person had left their beer league baseball game and hit the guy wire at about 35mph. I passed the car the next morning on my way to work, and the wire had sheered the passenger front quarter panel clean off as well as most of the suspension.
The second was near my work, and I saw it right after it happened (heard the noise, went and looked). A guy was trying to rush through the parking lot to bypass a stoplight, not noticing the parking lot didn’t have an outlet where he wanted to go. He decided to jump the curb, not noticing the guy wire, and his truck almost did a full 360 degree flip, ending up on its side.
Neither person was hurt too bad, but both lost the guy wires hard.
It really drives home that a sick-ass aileron roll and just looking like a dumbass is a difference of degrees.
I’ve seen news reports semi-recently in Northern California showing the same sort of thing. These things seem to happen more to younger drivers rather than old farts.
I’m curious how long his friend was stuck holding his beer.
Slack roping in a truck. Hooners are like “Yeah, well maybe…”
Presumably he also didn’t see he was driving on the sidewalk about to crash into the pole.
And removing the left front clip of the white parked car behind the rear of the truck, by the looks of it.
Also didn’t see the parked car he clipped and that building about 30 feet behind the pole.
I’m not convinced he should have been allowed to drive home.
I suspected intoxication but then read that part. My current theory is maybe elderly. Would explain why they didn’t just jump out.
There is great video of an older person going like 30MPH through a car wash. Mistook the gas pedal for the brake pedal and didn’t figure it out until they came flying out the other side and hit a retaining wall or something.
No way was the driver elderly. Look at those rims!