By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
A Maryland man, who told authorities he was “joy riding” and “sight-seeing” along the rural roads around Nokomis, apparently at a high rate of speed, escaped serious injury when his car went airborne, jumped a bridge and landed upside down in a ravine next to the CSX railroad tracks last Thursday, May 29.
Jerry Gehman, a captain with Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department (NVFD), said several people witnessed the mishap.
“A man and some children who were on the bridge told emergency responders the Chevrolet Impala went airborne at that point, flipped over in midair and landed upside down, in the ditch on the south side of the tracks,” he said. “The man said he was driving on James Road and Railroad Street, and he came across an open area on the east bank of Railroad, just before the sharp curve. He took out a container of grease in the greaser (a machine that keeps the flanges of the rail cars oiled) by the tracks and crossed the tracks at the Railroad Street bridge at a high rate of speed.”
As rescuers arrived, a train came through, causing a delay in getting to the entrapped driver.
Gehman said NVFD personnel didn’t have to cut the Maryland man out but used “brute force” to yank the door open and pull him out. They were surprised to discover he was only marginally injured.
“He had a gash on his head, and that’s it,” the first responder said. “He was talking and seemed to not be hurt very badly. He was taken to the hospital for treatment but seemed to be all right when he left the scene.”
Further complicating the rescue mission, another CSX freight was on its way. The train was ordered to slow its speed as it rumbled through the crash site, and a local tow service finally used an excavator to remove the Impala from its resting place, about 300 feet from the rail crossing.
The man, whose identity has not been released, was taken by ambulance to Atmore Community Hospital and was reportedly released after his wounds were treated.
A CSX track supervisor arrived and surveyed the damage, noting that the greaser would have to be replaced, but nothing else was amiss.
Gehman said the emergency response was just the latest in a series of extraordinary crashes that have occurred over the past few years in and around the tiny community.
“Only in Nokomis,” he said.