An Upstate New York truck driver is being praised for his quick thinking Thursday, May 9, to avoid what could have been a serious crash.
The unidentified driver steered his out-of-control tractor-trailer loaded with gravel off a residential street and into a wooded backyard to avoid hitting other vehicles, nearby homes, and even a utility pole. In addition, he managed to leap free of the truck to safety after steering it off the downhill street in Frankfort, a village in the Mohawk Valley near the New York State Thruway.
John Weir, a Frankfort Highway Department worker witnessed the crash that occurred at about 11:30 a.m. and said the truck’s brakes were smoking as it came down the hill. He praised the driver as a hero and said he was on his feet and walking shortly after the truck rolled over and came to rest harmlessly in the wooded backyard of a nearby home.
The trucker was taken to a hospital, but local police said he was not injured seriously.
