LUFKIN, TEXAS — A truck driver trapped inside his cab amid steel pipes following a collision with another 18-wheeler on US-59 south near Diboll was rescued by the Lufkin Fire Department’s Special Operations team in a delicate extraction that took an hour and a half and required crews to carefully lift the steel poles without injuring the driver or first responders.
The call came in around 5 a.m. on August 19. The collision occurred just south of Diboll in Polk County. When the Special Operations team arrived, they found the driver pinned inside the cab surrounded by steel pipes from the load. The driver was conscious and alert throughout the rescue.
“This extraction was delicate,” said Lufkin Assistant Fire Chief Ryan Watson. “We needed to lift the pipe without causing any added harm to the driver or injuries to the first responders.”
The team used their heavy technical rescue truck to complete the extraction. After an hour and a half, the driver was freed and airlifted by medical helicopter to a Houston hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Lufkin Fire Department’s Special Operations team is the only unit within a 50-mile radius trained for this type of extraction and equipped with the necessary heavy rescue truck.
“This was a coordinated effort between all of our agencies and the Polk County wreckers to rescue the man,” Watson said.
Assisting agencies included the Diboll Volunteer Fire Department, Corrigan VFD, Livingston VFD, Allegiance Emergency Medical Services, Texas DPS Troopers, and TxDOT.
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