N.B. man 'happy to be alive' after nearly being impaled in driving accident
CBC
After a long night shift on Jan.10, Michael Roy hopped into his pickup truck with a co-worker and started the long drive home.
The ride could have been his last.
Roy, 32, often took a rural logging road for the 100-kilometre drive from the job site in Plaster Rock to his home in Saint-Quentin.
Snow was heavy through the desolate woodland trail known locally as the West Tobique Wood Road.
"We didn't see much and we didn't go fast," Roy said.
Halfway through the drive, just as they were approaching a sharp turn over a bridge, Roy said his steering began to malfunction.
He said he lost control of the wheel and hit the brakes just as his truck slid through the bridge and into a ditch.
After the crash, Roy turned to his co-worker.
"I told him I'm happy to be alive, and he didn't know why."
Roy told him to turn on his flashlight, and the crash scene was revealed.
A thick wooden beam from the bridge had pierced through the front body of the truck, into the cabin, and through the very seat Roy was sitting on.
"When it entered the truck, it hit my seat just enough to lift me a little bit," Roy said, adding that it even ripped his pants.
"I'm glad that it wasn't an inch over because I would not be here to talk with you."
He said he and his co-worker were both in disbelief that Roy was still alive — the pair walked away without injury.