HANGING BY OUR SEATBELTS

Sheffield Village – A short ride home from the video store turned into quite a ride Saturday afternoon for Tom Melbar and Paul Noble after the truck they were riding in was struck by an oncoming motorist, sending them rolling over on Colorado Ave.

Melbar said he was traveling eastbound on Colorado when he saw a westbound car weaving in and out of traffic. “He ran off the road and once he recovered he just shot across the road and hit the back of my truck rolling us over.”

Sheffield Village Firefighters responded to the scene and although damage was heavy to both vehicles, none of the occupants were injured.

Sheffield Village Police had traffic stopped in both directions while they investigated the scene and to allow the Tow Service to upright Melbar’s truck and clean up the large debris field.

Melbar said that being inside of a vehicle while it’s rolling over was an experience he will not soon forget. “It all happened so quick, I don’t know that you really notice it. We didn’t really roll over, we were actually turned onto the roof then we slide about a hundred feet. It was very quiet at the end of it. You’re hanging from your seatbelts and talking to each other, which is good. Once I made sure Paul was ok, I noticed we still had power so told him to check the window to see if it would roll down, I couldn’t get out of my window because of the ditch, and it did so I said brace yourself and unlock your seatbelt. Luckily they unlocked and we fell to the roof and crawled out of the truck.”

Melbar, a Handy Man / Construction worker, said he learned a lesson from this crash. “One of the things I was surprised about was that none of my tools that I have in the truck hurt us after we were hit. The back seat area is loaded with tools and I think after this incident I will be getting a trailer to haul the tools and get them out of my truck.”

Firefighters, Police Officers and bystanders assisted Melbar in searching for and retrieving the tools that had been thrown from his truck.

To see more photos from the scene: CLICK HERE