Cocooned in twisted steel after two semis sandwiched his Chevy Silverado on an icy Oregon interstate, Kaleb Whitby not only survived, he was virtually uninjured.
"Thank God that I'm still alive," Whitby told Oregon Live . "Now I've got to go figure out why."
Whitby, a farmer who was on his way to pick up some cattle, got caught in a pile-up involving some 20 vehicles, mostly big rigs, on Interstate 84 near Baker City, Ore. Black ice, high winds and fog were blamed for the accident. A dozen people were injured, some seriously.
It's hard to believe that Whitby avoided serious injury after his SUV was pancaked by the two tractor-trailers, leaving it looking like it had been run through the car crusher in "Goldfinger."
But he managed to reach his Leatherman and cut away his seatbelt, and was then able to dislodge the steering column from his side.
Sergio Karplyuk, a trucker whose rig crashed and became disabled after the collision that trapped Whitby, helped free the farmer, and took the above photo.
On Oregon Live, reporter Andrew Theen described how Whitby got himself in the predicament:
"Headed up a slight hill into a curve, Whitby decided to pass the semi-truck in front of him, but then thought better of it. The fog was too thick. He backed off.
"When he rounded the curve and started descending, Whitby saw the semi again — but this time it was jackknifed across the interstate. He swerved to the right, but ended up hitting the back end of the trailer.
It flipped him around, and instantly his truck stalled — leaving him splayed out with his passenger side facing oncoming traffic.
"Then the headlights of an oncoming semi-truck filled the window frame."
After helping others involved in the pile-up, Whitby went to the hospital, where he was treated:
Two Band-Aids for his ring finger and some ice for his eye.
