A Good Samaritan who stopped to help a stranded motorist in North Carolina is lucky to be alive after he survived a 75-foot fall off a bridge.
Jeremiah Cribb was one of two FedEx contract truck drivers who stopped to help a stranded motorist Wednesday around 2:30 a.m. after the motorist’s car hydroplaned and hit the side of the bridge above the Yadkin River, CBS affiliate WBTV reported.
As he helped the driver, a tractor-trailer whizzed by — and with a sinking feeling that the vehicle was about to smash into the stranded car, he leapt out of the tractor-trailer’s way, according to ABC affiliate WSOC.
“When I realized he was going to hit the car, I just reacted on instinct,” he told WSOC. “It’s pitch-black dark. I thought I was hopping over a median. I just started free-falling.”
Instead of hopping over a median, Cribb accidentally hopped off the bridge, and landed 75 feet down onto a river bed sandbar, the Salisbury Fire Department said.
The department said he was rescued after a 45-minute mission, which involved firefighter Jacob Vodochodsky rappelling off the bridge.
When Vodochodsky got to Cribb, he feared he may have been paralyzed, and gave him a pinch on the leg that he luckily was able to feel, the firefighter told WSOC.
“He didn’t know what happened. He had no clue where he was at. We shared a couple of personal moments and let him know he was alright. We kept telling him he was doing great and we’d get him out of here,” Vodochodsky told WBTV.
Cribb was transferred to the hospital conscious, but with serious injuries.
According to WBTV, he suffered three fractured ribs and a collapsed lung.
“I just thank God I’m alive,” Cribb told WSOC. “Words can’t describe it. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”
Multiple agencies reportedly assisted in the rescue, including the Millers Ferry Fire Department, the Salisbury Fire Department, Rowan County Rescue Squad and Davidson County emergency workers.
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