MILWAUKEE (AP) – A driver who survived when his truck collapsed about 21 meters from a slippery Wisconsin ramp said he was grateful to be alive.
Richard Lee Oliver, in an interview that aired on Thursday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” program, he said he was on his way to his mother’s house when his truck hit the snow on the side of an overpass in the Milwaukee area.
“There was too much snow on the side of the road that, once the tires sank like two feet of snow, there was no way to control a vehicle of any kind,” said Oliver, who was hospitalized with a fractured back and leg and other injuries.
A Wisconsin Department of Transportation camera recorded Saturday’s accident where the pickup can be seen passing over a barrier and plummeting to the interstate below as cars pass. The truck landed upright on the right shoulder of the west lanes of Interstate 94.
Oliver, the father of a 6-month-old child, said he is grateful to the two people who came to his aid, including a man who helped him make a call.
“He helped me in the back of my truck and helped me call my mom in case I can’t make it,” he said.