Source The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass.
ANDOVER, Mass. -- Firefighters rescued a man using ropes and special equipment after his pickup truck veered off Interstate 93 north from the left lane, went across traffic and rolled down a steep embankment yesterday afternoon, according to police and fire officials.
The man, not identified by police yesterday, was taken to Lawrence General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, said Trooper Thomas Murphy, a state police spokesman.
State police and the Andover Fire Department responded to the single-car rollover north of Exit 41 (Route 125) around 1 p.m.
The breakdown lane and right lane were closed until about 3 p.m. Additional lanes were closed as crews pulled the truck out of the embankment, Murphy said.
The cause of the accident remains under investigation, he said.
Andover fire Chief Michael Mansfield said the steep embankment presented some challenges for rescuers. He said the older-model Ford rolled about halfway down the 80-foot bank. The truck was stopped by branches and trees, he said.
"The steepness of the embankment made our job more difficult," Mansfield said. "It was steep enough that you were almost unable to walk up on foot without falling or losing your footing."
The rescue effort took about 20 minutes, Mansfield said.
The truck was reported as going at a high rate of speed before veering off the highway. The truck took out about 40 or 50 feet of the guardrail before going over the embankment, Mansfield said.
"The guardrail is there to prevent this," Mansfield said. "It appears like he hit it at a high rate of speed."
As a tow-truck operator hitched up to the pickup, a bees nest was stirred up, Mansfield said. The driver of the pickup truck had already been placed in the ambulance and was on the way to the hospital before the bees attacked, he said.
A second ambulance on scene had already cleared, but returned as a precaution because the tow-truck operator sustained several bee strings, Mansfield said. The man was assessed by the paramedics but was not treated.
Firefighters sprayed the area with water to keep the bees away, Andover deputy fire Chief Kevin Connors said.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
