Tow Truck Driver Lying Under Vehicle Survives Crash

By Greg Suskin

LANCASTER, S.C. -- On the ground, dazed, his head spinning, Chris Davidson could only think about his 2-year-old son.

"That's the only thought that was in my mind, what if something happened to me? What would that mean for him?" Davidson said.

Davidson is a tow truck driver in Lancaster County. Thursday night, he was trying to tow a broken-down phone company truck on Doc Garris Road south of Lancaster.

The Comporium Communications truck had stalled in the road. Two employees had placed orange warning cones nearby and were waving flags to alert passing drivers.

As Davidson was under the stalled truck trying to attach his tow cable, he heard a frightening sound.

"Within a matter of second, I heard a bunch of screaming," he said.

Then there was an impact.

"I felt something hit me on top of the head and just got slammed to the ground. At that point, it became just survival, just trying to get out from that truck as fast as I could," he said.

Troopers said 76-year-old John Curry never hit the brakes but drove his pickup truck into the back of a trailer that was attached to the broken-down truck. He was thrown from his pickup and killed.

Investigators don't believe Curry had a medical emergency. It's not clear why he never saw the truck in the road in front of him or the cones or the flagmen. The deputy coroner said it's possible the bright late afternoon sun was in his eyes, but officials just aren't sure.

"He was a loving father. He would do anything to help anyone," said Darrell Curry, John's son.

He said his father drove those same back roads his whole life and would've seen the truck and the people in the road ahead of him. He can't understand how this happened.

"If you've got cones sitting out there, you've got a man with a flag, anybody could see that," Curry said.

Moments after the crash, Davidson crawled from beneath the stalled truck. He suffered only a mild concussion.

Now he's grateful to be alive but also hurts for Curry’s family.

"I think that's something I'll carry with me for the rest of my life," he said. "It takes a toll on you."

NEWS SOURCE