NSW Ambulance paramedics have praised the actions of two trail bike riders who dragged an injured truck driver to safety from his burning vehicle at Yalwal earlier this week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The 57-year-old driver suffered multiple injuries after being thrown through the windscreen and trapped under the cabin of the truck for a short time after crashing into bushland.
Emergency services were called to the crash on Yalwal Road, 30km west of Nowra, around 1.45pm on September 13.
The two motorcyclists, in their 20s, were riding in the area and passed the truck travelling in the opposite direction down a steep unsealed section of the road.
The riders noticed the back brakes on the heavy rigid truck were on fire.
They tried to alert the driver but by the time they caught up with the truck it had crashed into bushland.
The vehicle stopped about 10 metres off the road after hitting trees and rocks.
The driver was thrown through the windscreen and then pinned under the cabin which had come off the truck.
With the fire from the truck’s brakes spreading to the rest of the vehicle and surrounding bushland, the two riders managed to release the trapped man and take him to safety before the whole truck was engulfed.
A number of Rural Fire Service crews attended the scene and extinguished the truck and the nearby fire which spread to bushland.
The driver suffered chest, lower leg injuries and lacerations.
He was airlifted from the scene to Liverpool Hospital in a critical but stable condition by the NSW Ambulance Toll Rescue Helicopter.
Paramedics said the riders’ actions averted an incident that could have had a tragic outcome.