The man who was driving a delivery van that was crushed by crane lift sections on a New Jersey highway Wednesday afternoon says he was lucky to escape the deadly accident with a broken nose, sore ribs and a limp.
"All I know is I was riding beside a tractor-trailer and just feel like I got hit by a train," said 52-year-old Daulton Banks.
Banks and his friend, 47-year-old Leonard David Bowens, of Newark, were in the van that was wrecked on Route 3 near the Paterson Plank Road overpass in Secaucus. Crane sections being carried on a tractor-trailer hit the overpass and toppled onto their vehicle. The van then hit a pillar.
Banks said he didn't remember the impact. He was making a move to pass by the tractor-trailer because he says he doesn't like driving next to the big rigs and it was "disaster after that," he said.
"Only time I seen the crane is after the fact," Banks said. "I didn't know what hit us."
Both he and Bowens were trapped. Firefighters pulled Banks from the vehicle in about 15 minutes, but it took more than an hour to free Bowens. His legs were crushed, and he died at a hospital overnight.
"He was complaining about a lot pain -- legs, legs, legs," Banks said of his friend.
Richie Johnson, a firefighter who was part of the extensive emergency response, said his team talked to the men to keep them calm as they waited for EMS workers to arrive. Firefighters had to cut steel around the men to get them out. Chopper 4 captured the dramatic rescue effort on video.
"Cut the beam, the bars off the car, cut the seat, get the seat out of the way," Johnson said.
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Banks said he was able to squirm out of the crushed van after firefighters cut through the windshield and steering wheel, and his concern at that point was for his passenger.
"I was worried about my passenger. 'How's my friend?' How's my friend?'" Banks said. "I wasn't worried about too much of anything. Seeing the roof caved in like that ... I kept thinking he was smashed. I couldn't see him."
The tractor-trailer that was carrying the crane sections stopped about 100 yards after hitting the overpass; part of the flatbed was smashed. Investigators will perform a blood test on the tractor-trailer's driver, Ralph Bosco of Staten island, to determine whether he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Preliminary tests do not indicate that Bosco was under the influence.
Police say that Bosco's truck was taking the crane sections, which are used to help build high-rise buildings, to a site in Jersey City.
