SALISBURY, N.C. — A Charlotte area FedEx driver is lucky to be alive after falling off the Yadkin River Bridge in Salisbury last week.
Jeremiah Cribb says he pulled over to help a woman on the side of I-85. When he saw an 18-wheeler coming towards him, he jumped out of the way, expecting to land on the median, instead falling 75 feet down.
Miraculously he didn't have any major injuries and he's out of the hospital. He wanted to reunite with the men and women who saved his life. He meet them Thursday at the Salisbury Fire Department.
“I’m out of the hospital after 2 days, standing in front of you guys, words just can’t describe how blessed I am to be here,” Cribb said to the crowd of first responders.
Healed and walking is not how the first responders expected to see him initially. When they responded to the bridge, he was lying in the dirt. It wasn't a typical call and it certainly doesn't have the expected outcome.
“I think we both looked at each other like, this guy is going to be dead when we look over this thing, and he wasn't,” says Ashley Melchor with Rowan County EMS.
Once they got to the bridge, it only took firefighters 11 minutes to get him up and to a stretcher. It’s a rope rescue they train for often on the tower at the fire station, but it was the first time the two firefighters used the skills in an emergency.
They did it seamlessly, something Cribb is grateful for.
“I was ready, I was ready to get back up on solid ground,” he said. He sees every single first responder as a hero, but they see it the other way around.
"This is just something we train for all the time, and what we're expected to do when we're called upon,” says Kinston Nesbitt, 1 of the 2 firefighters who rappelled down the side of the bridge.
First responders say they think Cribb is the hero, it was his good deed that landed them all there.
"He stopped to help people and that’s what we do, and in many ways, I think our guys felt like they were helping one of our own,” says Batallion Chief Nicholas Martin.
A go fund me has been set up for Cribb, he plans to donate some of the money to charity. You can donate at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/jeremiah-cribb
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