Forums Forums National News Driver impaled on pole telephoned boss

Lorry driver Jason Ripley called his boss after being impaled on a pole to say "I've had a bit of an accident."

WARNING: A bit grizzly.

He was almost killed when the pole smashed through the windscreen of his truck and continued through his chest, narrowly missing his heart.
The father-of-two remained conscious long enough to telephone his disbelieving boss.
Mr Ripley, 39, said he owed his life to air ambulance paramedics who airlifted him to hospital.
The delivery man was taking some timber to engineering firm Henry Williams, in his home town, Darlington, when he collided with a steel horizontal barrier in August last year.
He told The Sunday Sun in Newcastle: ''I just didn't see it at all. It went straight through my chest and out the back. There was seven or eight feet of pole sticking out.
''I just thought it was pinning me. I thought it was digging into my flesh but that was it. When I looked down I realised it had gone straight through I was very shocked.
''It was only two or three inches away from my heart. I was just staring up at the sky, thinking that's it, I'm going to die, I'm not going to see anyone again.''
As Jason resigned himself to dying, his thoughts turned to his partner Helen Todd, 38, and sons Joshua, 19, and Jay, 11.
Fire crews rushed to the scene and cut a section of the pole away, before a helicopter from the Great North Air Ambulance arrived to carry him to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.
Within minutes, he was put into the hands of doctors who put him into an induced 24-hour coma.
Surgeons cut into his ribs and slid the barrier out from the side, under his arm.
He had to have one rib removed and another two bound together.
Within months of the accident, he had returned to work.

Source

ouch that must of hurt a lot!!!

thats one lucky bloke

Glad he's alright, I know how he feels, I was impaled on a pole once, i think her name was Ludmila.

hehe

If you was impaled on a pole I think his name was Vlad. Was you the impaler or the impalee bert?

Ouch!! He must have been in shock to ring the boss.

I hope your not suggesting i have a Pinky Ring

No, maybe a sore ring.

SOrry - I took that right down to the deepest gutter level. Maybe that classes as storm drain humour.

Been in a mongoose drain or two myself Snooze, it aint so bad once you've cleaned the shoit off yourself. They don't 'alf pen and ink.