Gainesville, FL:Driver injured when pickup flies off street, breaks pole on Wednesday, July 15th 2015

A man was seriously injured Wednesday night when the full-size pickup he was driving slammed into a utility pole after traveling 60 feet in the air from a stretch of Southwest 63rd Avenue, according to an official with Gainesville Fire Rescue.GFR and the Florida Highway Patrol were called at 11:59 p.m. to 1800 SW 63rd Ave., on a report of a vehicle that had sliced a utility pole in two pieces. Firefighters arrived minutes later and found a 1-ton Dodge Ram with dually wheels resting on its side, with a utility pole toppled onto it.The man, whose name was not immediately released, was pulled from the Dodge after a particularly lengthy and complicated extrication process and taken to UF Health Shands Hospital with serious injuries, GFR District Chief Michael D. Cowart said.“He was in a state where there could be internal injuries that you really won't know about until you get him to the hospital,” Cowart said. “We had to get him out of there as soon as possible.”Judging from evidence at the scene, the pickup was traveling on 63rd southwest of U.S. 441 and Williston Road when it veered across an oncoming lane and hit a culvert, which caused it to go airborne. The truck traveled about 60 feet through the air before it slammed into the utility pole, snapping it in half. The pickup came to rest on the passenger's side and the wooden pole fell onto its front, Cowart said.The driver was pinned inside, his legs caught between the steering wheel and the driver's seat. GFR crews spent 15 minutes cutting off a door and a section of the roof before eventually pulling the man to safety. The process of rescuing the man was complicated.
“This was one of the longer extrications I have been on,” Cowart said. “Just about everything that could have been there did occur.”The events that led up to the crash are under investigation by FHP.

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Driver injured when pickup flies off street, breaks pole