Flipped truck leaves teen hanging from a Galilee bridge
Amid strong winds and rain, firefighters rush to extract father and son from overturned cabin at Somech Junction
A dramatic scene unfolded on the sidelines of Highway 70 in the Galilee Sunday when a truck overturned on a bridge, fell onto the bridge’s supporting beams, and left a 14-year-old boy clinging for his life while firefighters scrambled to the rescue.
The accident occurred at the Somech Junction east of Haifa.
According to an initial investigation by traffic authorities, heavy winds and rains caused the truck to skid across the bridge, hit the railing and flip over onto the road below. Luckily for its two passengers, the boy and his 48-year-old father, the truck was caught by the edge of a special support-beam structure that kept it from crashing onto the highway below.
Firefighters and rescuers were called in from the surrounding towns, and launched what authorities described as a “complex” rescue operation.
The father was trapped in the partially crushed truck cabin, which perched sideways some 12-15 meters (40-50 feet) above the highway below. Rescuers feared he might fall through the door window.
But the boy’s situation was even more dire. He had already been partially thrown from the window, and managed to catch the cement beam, hanging desperately from it for some time until rescuers could reach him.
After attempts by ladder failed, a special crane was rushed to the scene that allowed firefighters to reach the overturned cabin from below.
Once extricated, father and son were treated by Magen David Adom paramedics and taken to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
They were listed in moderate condition.
The dramatic incident was not the only traffic accident on a blustery, rain-drenched Sunday.
A 28-year-old man was moderately injured when his car overturned near Re’em Junction east of Ashdod. He sustained head wounds, rescuers said, and was taken to Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot.
A 60-year-old woman was hit by a car on Shabazi Street in the central Israeli town of Rosh Ha’ayin. A MDA ambulance took her in moderate condition to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah.