On Saturday, 29-year-old truck driver Matt Cook was driving along Interstate 75, over the Alafia River bridge, in Tampa, Florida, when the steering on his truck suddenly failed, causing Cook to lose control of his truck.
The out-of-control truck went over the side of the bridge and fell nearly 50 feet to the river bed below.
Fortunately for Cook, an off-duty firefighter and police officer just happened to be driving by when the accident occurred.
“When he hit that, I could barely see anything there was so much smoke… and the tractor disappeared,” firefighter John Fragomeni told WTSP.
“The cab was all separated on its own, the axle came off, the bull dozer went 100 yards the other way and my first instinct was ‘this guy might be hurt really bad or he might not even be alive’,” firefighter John Fragomeni told WTSP.
Fragomeni and the off-duty police officer ran to the driver’s aid, but both were fearful the driver might not have survived the crash.
“The guy pokes his head out of the roof of the truck. Right then, I was breathless. I was so happy to see he was alive.”
The two rescue workers and a fisherman helped aid Cook.
Fragomeni said the driver described the crash to him, “He was like I don’t know what happened. It felt like the truck was coming apart while I was driving.”
Cook was transported to a hospital and was listed in serious condition.