3 trucks, 90 minutes to lower truck that slid off N.C. 147 bridge in winter storm

The truck, owned by HAGOS Trucking LLC out of Texas, was contracted for Amazon deliveries and was headed westbound to a warehouse Sunday around 5:30 p.m. when the driver lost control and slid off the bridge.

Joseph Gilliam was southbound on U.S. Highway 15-501 when the truck plunged 22 feet from N.C. 147 onto 15-501.

"It was an explosion of cement and stuff. I seen him start to nosedive down," Gilliam said. "At first I didn't believe it. You think your mind's playing tricks on you. Like, no way that I just saw a semi nosedive off a bridge."

The cab of the truck appeared to land upright, while the trailer was vertical, leaning from bridge to road.

Gilliam grabbed his phone, captured some video and rushed to check on the driver.

"I opened the door, and I asked the dude if he was OK," Gilliam said. "He was talking. He was alert."

The driver was taken to a local hospital, and a HAGOS spokesman told WRAL News it appears he broke his back.

Lee Gardner, owner of Lee's Towing, told WRAL News that it was a lucky thing the trailer was empty. Had it been full, that weight likely would have crushed the cab when it fell.

"It takes training. It takes practice. It takes working together," Gardner said of the team that performed the removal effort in biting cold.

Lee's 24-Hour Towing supplied three heavy-duty rotator tow trucks. Each carries a crane-like arm that rotates to lift and control a heavy load. Lee's positioned one on the bridge to secure the top of the trailer, one on the ground to pull it and another to remove the cab from the guardrail.

"What we had to do first was secure it and get it to where we could control it while we pulled it from under the bridge," Gardner said.

The trailer was back in a horizontal position and towed away right around 9 p.m.