A Selkirk Paving employee is lucky to be alive after being pinned under a dump truck that rolled off the road on Park Street near the Nelson hospital, around noon Friday.
The dump truck, which was parked on Park Street at Silica Street, was attached to a flatbed trailer that had been loaded with building supplies and a road paving vehicle.
Police investigating the incident believe the parked truck started to roll when workers attempted to unload the paver. The weight of the paver, when it was moved to the back of the flatbed, tipped the trailer back like a teeter-totter and also pulled the truck’s back tires and the rear brakes off the ground.
“The driver tried to jump into the truck to stop it but got caught underneath it instead,” Nelson Police Acting Sgt. Paul Bayes said.
Paramedics pulled the 53-year-old Nelson man out from under the truck and transported him to Kootenay Lake General Hospital. His injuries were not life threatening, according to Bayes.
“It’s a miracle he’s alive,” Bayes said. “He was a just a few inches from being crushed.” 
The truck jack-knifed over the curb, crashing through city fencing and into the side of a home garage. Its fuel tank was punctured sending diesel fuel streaming down the side of Silica Street.
Nelson Public Works responded to clean up the spill and laid sand bags down to stop it before it leaked into the storm drain.
Gyro Park Road and part of Park and Silica streets were closed all Friday afternoon with Nelson fire fighters, Nelson police officers and RCMP traffic reconstructionists on scene to aid in the investigation and cleanup.
