Darlington dad tells how he survived pole horror

Nov 15 2009 by Rob Pattinson, Sunday Sun

IMPALED inside the cab of his delivery truck, Jason Ripley stared up at the sky ready to die.

The 39-year-old knew the metal barrier had gone straight through him.

Consumed by shock the dad-of-two called his boss and said: “I’ve had a bit of an accident.”

For more than a year Jason has tried to forget the traumatic ordeal captured in these exclusive pictures.

But today the family-man has spoken for the first time about his miracle rescue.

He wants the region to know: “The Great North Air Ambulance saved my life.”

Delivery man Jason was taking some timber to engineering firm Henry Williams, in his home town, Darlington, when he collided with a horizontal barrier, pushed back into a bush out of sight.

As it struck the side of his truck it bounced on the bonnet and smashed through the windscreen before there was time to react, on August 19, last year.

Jason said: “I just didn’t see it at all. It went straight through my chest and out the back. There was seven or eight feet of pole sticking out.

“I just thought it was pinning me. I thought it was digging into my flesh but that was it. When I looked down I realised it had gone straight through I was very shocked.

“It could have been the adrenalin, but I managed to stay calm. I could see people a couple of hundred yards away but they didn’t seem to notice.

“I could see I was split open. As I breathed you could see the blood gurgling up in the gap.

“It was only two or three inches away from my heart. I was just staring up at the sky, thinking that’s it, I’m going to die, I’m not going to see anyone again.”

Jason’s thought’s turned to his partner Helen Todd, 38, and sons Joshua, 19, and Jay, 11.

“I wanted to speak to my son for the last time,” he said.