'I'm in a spot of bother...': What lorry driver rang to tell boss after being impaled by 8ft pole in freak accident

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:17 PM on 16th November 2009

A lorry driver was speared by an 8ft pole and calmly called his boss to say: 'I'm in a spot of bother.'

Jason Ripley was pierced through the chest – just inches from his heart - by the metal shaft after an accident in his delivery truck in Darlington, north east England.

The 39-year-old drove into a horizontal barrier, which was hidden by a bush, and as it struck the side of his vehicle, it bounced on the bonnet and smashed through the windscreen.

But as he lay impaled he realised nobody had seen the freak accident and he risked dying.

So he grabbed his mobile and phoned work to say: ‘I’ve had a bit of an accident - I’m in a spot of bother.’

Speaking of the moment he was skeward, he said today: ‘It went straight through my chest and out the back. There were seven or eight feet of pole sticking out.

‘It was only two or three inches from my heart. I was just staring at the sky, thinking, “That's it, I'm going to die”.’

He was lifted out of the seat by the impact and his vehicle came to a stop after 20 yards with the skewered driver left pinned against the back of the cab.

‘My boss raced around to see me. He was gob-smacked. It was just out of this world,’ he added.

Mr Ripley said his thoughts then turned to his family – his partner Helen Todd, 38, and sons Joshua, 19, and Jay, 11 – as he was being cut out of the vehicle by firefighters.

‘That was the worst bit, when they clamped the jaws of the cutters on the pole and it started turning inside me,’ he said.

The incident happened on August, 19 last year, but Great North Air Ambulance has just released the pictures to help raise cash.

‘It was strange when I saw it turning, but by that stage I just wanted to get it out of there.

‘Even when they put me in the helicopter there was still about four feet of pole going through me.

‘It was when I heard the Air Ambulance, that’s when I thought, I’m nearly there’ The minutes left in Jason’s ‘critical hour’ were running low.

Forklift truck drivers at the scene of the accident moved parked cars so the helicopter could get close and airlift him to James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Within minutes he was in the safe hands of the waiting surgeons.

He said: ‘Someone told me, “Don’t worry, your going to be ok and when I woke up the pole was gone.’ The pole meant he would not fit into a scanner.

He was induced into a 24-hour coma while skilled surgeons cut into his ribs and slid the barrier out from the side, under his arm.

He has suffered lasting injuries from the trauma, but was back at work within months and counts himself lucky to be alive.

Mr Ripley released the photographs over a year after the crash to try and help raise money for the Great North Air Ambulance.

He said: ‘It makes you appreciate what you”ve got.

‘It’s clear to me without the Great North Air Ambulance I would have died.

‘If they aren’t there people will die. I will be indebted to them forever. It took more than an hour to get me out of the truck.

‘Without the helicopter I don’t think It’s have survived the trip to hospital.

‘I can’t thank the GNAA, the doctors and the rescue team enough. They are all truly amazing.’

The accident happened on an industrial estate in Darlington when a loose pole, which was part of a gateway, bounced onto the bonnet of his truck and through the windscreen.

Mr Ripley still has a shoulder injury and had one rib removed following the accident.

He said: ‘I was driving through a gateway from one part of the industrial estate to another when it happened.

‘The pole was the gateway and was hanging loose but had been almost covered by overgrown bushes.

‘As I drove through the gateway the pole caught the truck, bounced onto the cab and went through the windscreen.

‘My colleagues were only a few hundred yards away so I phoned them first because it was easier to explain where I was than it would have been to the emergency services.

‘It was strange because I didn’t feel much pain at all.

‘I had a rib removed and two others tied together and I’ve also got a shoulder injury which I will probably have for life.’