FedEx worker lucky to be alive after falling 75 feet off bridge while helping stranded driver

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Friday, February 21, 2020
FedEx worker lucky to be alive after falling 75 feet off bridge while helping stranded driver
FedEx worker lucky to be alive after falling 75 feet off bridge while helping stranded driver

A delivery driver is lucky to be alive after he fell off a bridge while trying to help a stranded driver.

Jeremiah Cribb fell 75 feet off a bridge when he tried to avoid getting hit by a tractor-trailer.

A picture from rescue workers shows where he landed.

"I keep having flashbacks. I'm not supposed to be here right now," Cribb said.

Cribb said he was on the highway headed to make a delivery for FedEx when he saw a stranded driver stopped in the right lane.

He stopped to help but, soon after, a tractor-trailer started heading straight toward him.

"I was flashing my light on and off and he was in the left lane. He didn't merge and we didn't know if he was gonna hit the car, but I kinda had a feeling that he was and he went and he smashed into the car," Cribb said.

But before that, Cribb had already jumped over the median.

"I kinda laid there because I was afraid my back was broke," he said.

"He thought that he was jumping into a grass median that was at the same height," Salisbury Fire Department Battalion Chief Nicholas Martin said.

Jacob Vodochodsky was one of the firefighters who rappelled down to get Cribb.

"I gave him a little pinch on the leg because the way he was laying there looked like he may have been paralyzed from that great of a fall," Vodochodsky said.

But other than some shortness of breath and dizziness, Cribb was fine. He was even able to stand up.

"To be honest, that's entirely miraculous," Martin said.

"Words can't describe it. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it," Cribb said.

It took emergency responders about 45 minutes to get him to safety.

He's recovering from a few broken ribs and a collapsed lung.