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A MAN has been left shaken after assisting a work colleague who crashed his semi trailer at the base of Oberon Mount yesterday morning.
A 56-year-old Blayney man was travelling north-west towards Bathurst along the O’Connell Road around 8.40am when his semi trailer left the road on a sweeping right bend and crashed into a ditch on the roadside.
The Blayney man was treated on scene by paramedics and later airlifted to Liverpool Hospital with serious head and chest injuries.
Neil Sanders was travelling in another truck, only one kilometre ahead, when he heard his colleague had crashed over the CB radio.
“It came across on the radio ... I was on the brakes straight away,” he said.
Mr Sanders rushed to the semi trailer cabin and peered in to check on his colleague.
“He was conscious and said ‘hello’,” he said.
Mr Sanders said he was unable to help his trapped colleague who lay in the truck cabin pinned-down by metal and debris.
“All the dirt and rubble had come in the truck,” he said. “I’d say he jack-knifed.”
Mr Sanders and his injured colleague were driving trucks for landscape giant Australian Native Landscapes when the accident occurred.
“He was taking sawdust from Oberon to Blayney,” Mr Sanders said of his colleague. “It’s a light load because it was sawdust, which is lucky.”
While Oberon State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers and paramedics worked to free the man from his truck, Mr Sanders stood apprehensively by waiting for any news.
NSW Police Inspector Glenn Cogdell said the cause of the accident is unknown at this stage.
“He failed to negotiate a right-hand bend and rolled onto its near side,” he said.
“As a result of the accident the road was closed with diversions in place.”
The Blayney man remained in a stable condition in Liverpool Hospital yesterday.
The road remained closed for most of yesterday morning with the cause of the accident under investigation.
“Police would appeal for anyone who witnessed it to contact police,” Inspector Cogdell said.
If you witnessed yesterday’s accident or have information call Oberon police on 6336 1000.