By Scott Mobley
The Record Searchlight
JONES VALLEY, Calif. — Jones Valley Volunteer Fire Department crews investigating a wreck early Sunday wound up rescuing their own truck after the rig rolled down a hill into a sturdy pine.
No one was hurt in either crash, said Lance Berry, battalion chief for California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection/Shasta County Fire Department.
“Thankfully nobody was injured,” Berry said. “That’s the biggest deal. That could have been terrible.”
Fire crews got a call between 5 and 6 a.m. Sunday that a car had driven off Silverthorn Road. Three volunteers rode an engine and a rescue truck to the wreck, Berry said.
Volunteers found no one in or around the car. The rescue truck was parked about 40 feet up the hill with flood lights on to illuminate the search area, he said.
After about three or four minutes, the one-ton 2002 Ford F-450 pickup started rolling down the hill, Berry said.
Volunteers at first tried to stop the runaway truck but then let it go, he said.
The truck nicked the wrecked car as it went nose-first over the embankment into the pine. The crash smashed the truck’s front end, radiator and oil coolers, Berry said.
County maintenance crews will examine the truck to see if it rolled despite being in park with the emergency brake set, he said.
Jones Valley volunteer crews will carry their rescue gear on the company’s two engines until the truck is repaired.
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