Bystanders lift two-ton truck off cyclist to save him after collision

Bystanders in a small town in Canada managed to pick up a two-ton truck that had run over a cyclist this week.

A man in his 40s, who had recently moved to Canmore, Calgary, from the Philippines, had been run down from behind by the Ford Ranger truck at around 9pm on Tuesday, but emergency services were delayed by a passing freight train.

On hearing his cried for help, passers by decided not to wait any longer, but attempt to get the cyclist out themselves.

Brad Blois told the Calgary Sun that the attempts of him and others to push the pickup truck off the man only resulted in hurting him more.

“We weren’t budging it,” he said.

“It was on the guy, compressing him — it didn’t look like he could breathe, he couldn’t talk.”

Mr Blois then began recruiting others to help pick up the truck, and nine men were able to shift it.

“We were actually able to lift the truck off of him,” he said.

“We just all lifted it up at the same time, we got it about five inches off the ground.”

Some women pulled the man out from underneath before the rescuers dropped the truck.

The victim was airlifted to Calgary and is expected to recover from his injuries.

“When we first approached, the life or death of the situation didn’t sink in until we heard the suffering coming from that man. It kind of sets you into a different line of thinking,” said Mr Blois.

He and others from the scene are now donating cash to replace the man’s bike which was destroyed.

The cyclist was said to have not been wearing a helmet and had no lights on his bike.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police are still investigating the collision but say that the driver had not consumed alcohol and was not speeding at the time.

Last year we reported how passers-by including drivers from a nearby cab firm teamed up to lift a car off a female cyclist after she became trapped underneath it following a collision in London’s Spitalfields.

The 10 bystanders lifted the vehicle and put it onto its side to free 27-year-old Claire Pepper.

That meant that paramedics did not have to wait for the arrival of the fire brigade to start treatment.

London Ambulance Service duty officer Nick Osborne commented: “The patient was trapped under a car but around 10 bystanders lifted the car off the patient and rolled it on its side.

“The patient was very unwell and by moving the car our medics could get immediate access to her.