Crews use air bags, shovels to rescue man under backhoe
Published: April 25, 2007
A man in his 60s was injured Saturday afternoon when a 10-ton backhoe he was maneuvering up a dirt pile tipped over on its side, pinning him in the cab and driving his right leg into the ground.
The accident occurred shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday at 2727 N. Kerr Ave., in a sloped, debris-filled field being cleared for a garden.
Rescue teams from Wrightsboro Fire and Rescue and New Hanover Fire and Rescue responded to the 2:19 p.m. rescue call and arrived on the scene within 10 minutes. The accident scene was down a narrow, unpaved dirt lane separating small houses in a wooded area.
The injured man, identified as Charles “Champ” Bealon by neighbors living nearby, was freed from the cab of the tractor about 30 minutes after fire and rescue workers arrived, said Wrightsboro Deputy Chief Alex Stanland.
Rescue workers used shovels and then inflatable industrial air bags to get under the frame of the backhoe and lift it slightly off the ground to begin the rescue, then used wood chock blocks to stabilize the massive machine so it wouldn’t roll over on rescuers, Stanland said.
After Bealon’s lower right leg was freed from the dirt by digging under it with shovels, he was gingerly removed from the cab by a squad of rescuers and placed on a stretcher.
He appeared shaken but animated and alert to onlookers. He moved his arms and legs after an oxygen intake mask was strapped below his nostrils.
Bealon was taken to the emergency room at New Hanover Regional Medical Center where he was treated and released Saturday.
Alphonza Southerland, whose 3/4-acre garden patch Bealon had offered to clear Saturday, was an eyewitness to the accident involving his friend, known by most as “Champ.”
“I can’t believe it. It’s a good thing that there was a cab on that thing or he’d be dead otherwise,” Southerland said after Bealon was removed from the scene by rescuers.
Southerland said Bealon, who lives in Castle Hayne, came by early Saturday offering backhoe services to anyone needing any ground cleared.
Southerland said he’d been removing trash and other debris from the plot of land by himself and wanted to clear the land to plant a field of okra.
He said the accident happened when Bealon backed one side of the backhoe partly on a dirt pile. The machine teetered, its balance tipped, and then it went over in a rush, Southerland said.
Inside the cab, Bealon had instinctively thrust out his leg, pushing it through the glass window at the bottom of the door, with the force of the fall driving the limb into the cleared ground.
He remained conscious throughout the ordeal, Southerland said.
“He wasn’t no rookie at driving a backhoe; he’s got about 30 years of it. I can’t believe it,” Southerland said again.
As the accident scene cleared, Stanland called the incident a “freak accident” and said luck played a part in the nonfatal injury Bealon appeared to sustain to his right leg.
Because of their uneven weight distribution, heavy machinery can lead to accidents anytime it’s used on uneven ground, he said.
“He’ll be a little bruised up, but I think he learned a lesson on this one,” Stanland said.
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