A man is lucky to be alive after the garbage truck he was driving struck a beam at Coquitlam Centre on Friday, causing it to fall on top of his vehicle.
Fire chief Wade Pierlot said emergency crews had to sheer open the back of the truck to extract the man, who was conscious throughout the rescue, even making a 911 call while trapped. He was later taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
"The guy was extremely lucky that he wasn't killed out right when that thing collapsed," Pierlot said. "A lot of things aligned for us. These types of things usually don't go that well."
A small fire broke out when the accident initially occurred and Pierlot said that mall staff were able to put it out and assist the man until firefighters arrived.
Once on scene, crews were able to quckly tear through the back of the truck and pull the man to safety.
"I think it was a real cooperative effort," Pierlot said. "It was nice to see everyone come together."
Cranes were later called in to pull the beam off the vehicle, before it was hauled away.
Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart said it appears the driver failed to lower the bin on the vehicle before pulling out of the area. The extra height was enough to pull the beam down on the top of the truck.
WorkSafeBC is investigating the incident.
