A 43-year-old man has been airlifted to a Sydney hospital after his truck crashed through a safety barrier and rolled numerous times down the edge of Cambewarra Mountain.
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Emergency services were called to the bottom hairpin on the Nowra side of Moss Vale Road on Cambewarra Mountain around 5.30pm Friday, June 5.
The truck which was carrying a 3.5 tonne excavator, was travelling down the mountain towards Nowra when it failed to take the final hairpin about a kilometre north of Barfield Road, crashed through the Armco railing on the Cambewarra village side of the mountain and plunged 50 metres over the edge.
The vehicle rolled numerous times before coming to rest in a precarious position wedged against a tree.
The driver was the sole occupant of the vehicle.
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A NSW Police officer managed to scale down the mountain to the crash scene before NSW Ambulance crews arrived.
Paramedics had to abseil down the rugged mountainside to get to the location to treat the man, while a second team of paramedics walked into the site from an adjoining property.
The driver had managed to free himself from the mangled wreckage but suffered head, chest, suspected pelvic and leg injuries.
He was stabilised and treated at the scene before being placed on a Stokes litter.
Due to the difficult terrain another route was found to recover him from the crash site, with around a dozen ambulance, police and local residents forming a human chain to pass the stretcher hand over hand back to the roadway.
He was transported by ambulance to the Toll NSW Ambulance Rescue Helicopter which had landed on a nearby property further down the mountain before being flown to St George Hospital in a stable condition.
The rescue effort took more than two and a half hours.
Holiday traffic, making its way to the South Coast for the June Long weekend, was impacted for around three hours, with contraflow used to ease traffic past the location, as the rescue mission took place.
Officers from South Coast Police District are investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash.
Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au.
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Robert Crawford
Robert Crawford is a senior journalist at the South Coast Register, for Australian Community Media . Everyone's got a story, what's yours? Email robert.crawford@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Robert Crawford is a senior journalist at the South Coast Register, for Australian Community Media . Everyone's got a story, what's yours? Email robert.crawford@austcommunitymedia.com.au
