An Aiken man is in serious condition after a pickup he was driving became wedged on the Sixth Street railroad bridge Friday morning.
According to Richmond County Sheriff’s Deputy Cory Carlyle, James Ryan Anderson, 25, was attempting to drive across the railroad bridge, located next to St. Paul’s Church, in a Ford F150 with his brother Todd, 37, around 5:30 a.m. Friday, when the truck crashed into a trestle beam.
“I think they honestly thought they were on the road,” said Lt. Randy Prickett.
A train traveling from Georgia to South Carolina came up behind the vehicle but was able to stop before it crashed into the pickup’s rear.
The transmission had jammed during the crash and the speedometer was stuck on 60 mph. Prickett said it’s a pretty good estimate of the speed but the actual speed could be slightly lower or higher.
Deputies believe alcohol was a contributing factor in the crash.
The brothers have been interviewed, but Prickett said neither remembers where they were coming from or where they were going. Investigators are trying to determine whether a backseat passenger fled the scene before deputies arrived.
The Anderson brothers were still in the vehicle when deputies arrived, but officers discovered a pool of blood outside one of the rear doors.
Susan Terpay, a spokesperson for Norfolk Southern, said it could take up to two days to complete repairs.
Two trains were delayed Friday after the incident. Terpay said all trains are now being rerouted.
“It will have minimal impact,” she said.
Sean Vandiver, a terminal superintendent of Norfolk Southern, said these type of incidents are rare.
“Unfortunately, I have seen this,” he said.
Crews were unsuccessful at pulling the lodged vehicle off the bridge Friday morning. It eventually fell upside down onto Riverwalk Augusta.
The brothers were transported to Medical College of Georgia Hospital with head injuries. According to a hospital spokeswoman, the driver remained in serious condition Friday afternoon, and the passenger is in fair condition.
Just good ole boys
never meaning no harm.
Hey bubba, watch this!
Right, and "bubba" just about killed them both!
As they say, "Nothing good ever happens after 'hey, watch this'!"
This is whats known as an understatement. How in the world did he/she manage that.
So now we have a fish attracter under that bridge. Dumb Crook News all over this one.
Part of me wishes I was riding in the truckbed when this went down.
Had to be drunk or something else to do something so stupid. I thought about walking across it one time in my younger day when I was working at my grandfathers business which was next to the church but decided that was also stupid because it was a long way across the river.
How would you like to be this guy's insurance agent? I guess the adjuster that they usually send out to look at the wreckage had better invest in scuba gear.
Results from the brain scan at the hospital...... they didn't find anything.
Sorry Sean, I couldn't resist that one.
Did it really surprise anyone that the article reports "South Carolina license plates?" ;-)
Bubba wouldn't even try a stunt like this... Seriously, their lives are going to suffer some bad consequences. At least for the driver. As far as their insurance goes that 100-300-100 limits of liability aren't going to come close to the delays and losses incurred by the train company, so I hope they have a lot more than the minumum state requirements. As the insurance agent goes, do you think there's a clause excepting them from covering gross negligence? Maybe not, I guess insurance covers many less than brilliant stunts. I'm glad they weren't killed by a train while they were stuck out on the tracks.
Is this guy a relative of the guy who drove his SUV into the Augusta Mall and then around the inside?
i sure feel sorry for those people. they were probably just acting stupid anyways.
Safe to assume insurance will not cover this. He will be making payment's on something he can not drive. From what I heard it was a new truck.
Well, after all, he had seen Norfolk Southern trucks traverse that same trestle.
And every inebriate "knows" that a Ford 150 can do anything a GMC can.
Is the driver the one who had the fart machine in the mall? I forgot. That one was a teenager.
Hope the railroad sues him personally for the damages and the cost of the disruption of their business. This might sound like just Bubba and Bobo trying a "good ole boy" stunt but the fact that they were going fast enough to do that much damage would appear to put them squarely in the IQ < 50 mentally deficient territory.
Being from South Carolina, that is just embarrassing! Please tell me there was alcohol involved!!
dichtomy, to your point, how about the responsibility and cost of removing the truck from the river?
Alcohol and South Carolina plates....what can I say?
Latest reports and pics show that the truck fell off during the removal process, but landed on the Riverwalk.
Well, at least people will recognize Augusta for something other than the Masters!
South Carolina: Need we say more. LOL! Really bad that they are going to get to vote for the GOP nominee for President tomorrow!! Some will probably write in Barry O! Humor guys, don't get offended!!
Wow. Video on this one is great! Wonder what exactly they thought they would do when they got to the other side? Give a drunk redneck a 4x4....
Edit: And the guy supervising next to the truck on the bridge! He has absolutely no reaction at all when the truck slides off. Stone cold. ha
Just because the driver drives a truck doesn't make him a redneck or a "good old boy".
Can you imagine the outrage if comments like some of these said something stereotypical about blacks in a derogatory way. The PC police would be out in full force and the comments would be getting deleted left and right by the AC.
But, its OK in the USA to personally attack and categorize a white male by calling him a redneck. Even if you have no idea who was driving the vehicle.
That said, whoever it was is clearly an idiot. Black, white, asian, hispanic or drunk.
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