Kan. Man Survives 20 Hours in Overturned Truck
Feb. 29--A man who laid in an overturned pickup south of Buhler in the Little Arkansas River for nearly 20 hours was rescued early Tuesday evening and flown to a Wichita hospital minutes before severe weather closed in over the area.
Reno County Sheriff's officers said Tanner James Crawford, 19, was trapped inside a 2002 Ford Ranger that had flipped over in the riverbed, just north of 56th Avenue on Buhler Road.
Emergency crews responded to the call around 5:40 p.m. Tuesday after he was spotted by a Buhler family that was driving south on Buhler Road.
A helicopter took Crawford, who was reported to be disoriented, dehydrated and suffering from undetermined injuries, to Via Christi St. Francis Medical Center in Wichita about 6:30 p.m., shortly before the area was hit by a driving rainstorm. The hospital said late Tuesday that Crawford was in critical condition.
Marvin Daniel Jr., 13, said he was riding in the backseat of the family vehicle when he looked out over the river and saw the white pickup resting partly in the river and partly on the north bank.
He said his parents didn't believe him at first. However, Marvin Daniel Sr. turned their vehicle around and went back and stopped near the bridge, saw the pickup and dialed 911 on his cellphone.
Marvin Jr. and his mother walked down the south bank toward the accident while Marvin Sr. began walking across the bridge while shouting to ask if anyone was down there. He didn't hear anything, but he did see movement in the truck, so he headed down the north bank and shouted again as he got closer. This time he heard someone say something from inside the pickup, though he couldn't understand what it was because the windows were rolled up.
About that time, he said, the first emergency personnel arrived in a fire truck.
Sheriff's officers said it appears Crawford was northbound on Buhler Road when for unknown reasons he drove off the left side of the road, down the embankment, across the river and overturned as it hit the opposite bank.
Sheriff's officers said Crawford was conscious when they reached him and he told them that he had been in the river bed for "a couple of days." However, Crawford later told them that he left home around 10:30 p.m. Monday, headed for the Hutchinson Wal-Mart. On the way back home, he lost control of his vehicle.
Copyright 2012 - The Hutchinson News, Kan.
