Fresno County Fire crews said that two people were killed and one person was airlifted to the hospital with major injuries after a crash on Highway 168 near the Beal fire road. (KFSN)
ABC30 Web Staff
Updated 33 mins ago
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A disoriented victim told rescue crews the vehicle had gone over the cliff about eight days ago.
Fresno County Fire crews said that two people were killed and one person was airlifted to the hospital with major injuries after a crash on Highway 168 near the Beal fire road.
(Fresno County CalFire)
Cal Fire said when they arrived at the scene, they found two men who appeared to have been ejected from the vehicle had died. A third man in his twenties was alive and pinned inside the vehicle about 200 to 300 yards from the road down a steep embankment.
Crews used the jaws of life to cut the man out and he was airlifted out with major injuries.
A Cal Fire spokesperson said the man who survived told them he had been their for about eight days. Cal Fire said they could not confirm that because the man was disoriented, however they did say the engine of the vehicle was cold when they arrived.
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Two dead after truck tumbles down embankment on Highway 168 below Shaver Lake
Fresno Bee Staff
Two men in their 20s died and a third survivor was airlifted to a Fresno hospital Tuesday after a large pickup truck tumbled down an embankment in the Fresno County foothills on Highway 168 on the four-lane section between Auberry and Shaver Lake, according to Fresno County Emergency Medical Services.
A motorist stopped firefighters about halfway up the four-lane, about 40 miles east of Fresno, to report a vehicle over the side.
Two were dead at the scene, ejected from the Chevrolet Avalanche. The third man, also in his 20s, was extricated from the vehicle after the roof was removed, Cal Fire Capt. Jeremiah Wittwer said.
Cal Fire firefighters required rappelling equipment to get to the crash site, the California Highway Patrol reported.
Wittwer said the vehicle fell about 200 yards down the embankment, the first 100 feet filled with “rocks and boulders.” He said U.S. Forest Service crews helped chainsaw down brush and trees for firefighters to reach the vehicle, which was on its side and crushed.
A helicopter airlifted the rescued man to Community Regional Medical Center, according to Fresno County Emergency Medical Services.
Officials don’t know when the truck crashed.
Don Bare, who lives nearby, said he saw the truck “went way down the hill.”
He added: “If it had been there for days, you’d never see it.”
The crash was reported about about 10:52 a.m. Tuesday.