Firefighters race to rescue man hit by semi, stuck between tires

PLYMOUTH TWP., Mich. (FOX 2) - First responders raced against time to save a man stuck between semi-truck tires Thursday night.

Caller: "I need an ambulance."

Dispatcher: "Where are you?"

Caller; "We're at McLane Food Distribution."

Dispatcher: "What's going on?"

"A guy was behind the truck and I didn't see him and I backed into him."

That emergency call came from a food service company.

"The person that got in the truck and backed the truck up when someone was working on it, he didn't know he was there," said Chief Dan Phillips Plymouth Township Fire Department. "And that's what caused it, it was just a simple accident."

The worker was pinned between two tires and emergency crews raced to free him.

"We moved very slowly and methodically, he was in stable condition most of the time," Phillips said. "We were able to move the truck slowly, asked him how it affected him - if it felt better or worse, as we removed things from around him."  

That's when the fire department in Plymouth Township called on a towing company and the Livonia Fire Department for help to rescue the worker 

"This is big, heavy industrial equipment," Phillips said. "So we had to call the Livonia department for their assistance."

After two hours of delicate maneuvering by emergency crews, the worker was freed and rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.

"He was in great pain, but he was able to communicate with my staff and the Livonia staff so we could remove the equipment around him," Phillips said. "We could ascertain his injuries and get him to St. Mary's. In the grand scheme of things his injuries are very light for that type of accident."

FOX 2 reached out to McLane about the incident heard back as of yet.