A TRUCK driver stranded on his roof for 1½ hours yesterday said he would have jumped if he had not been safeguarding medical material.
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Paul McLeod was caught in water surging from Black Dog Creek which ran across Railway Access Road at Chiltern about 7.50am yesterday.
“I did a delivery just before on the same road, 200 metres from where the water was across the road and I pulled up and had a look at the water and it was under a metre deep, so I thought ‘no dramas’,” Mr McLeod said.
“Then as I rolled through it, the back of the truck lifted and took me down the creek.”
Mr McLeod estimates he was swept up to six metres off the road.
His Mitsubishi truck was left resting against bushes, at a 45-degree angle.
Water was lapping halfway up the driver’s door when he got out and climbed on to the roof.
Locals spotted the Wangaratta man and raised the alarm.
Firefighters and the SES were despatched to the scene.
Chiltern SES spokeswoman Bree-anna Geisler said they had held their breath as the truck shifted in the floodwaters.
“The flood boat had just been put in the water when the whole truck moved,” she said.
“It was edged up against the railway line and who knows what would have happened if the driver had ended up in the creek.
“The water was flowing really fast and rising rapidly.”
Mr McLeod was extremely thankful for the efforts of his rescuers.
“They did a really good job, they did an excellent job in a bad situation,” he said.
As he waited to be rescued, Mr McLeod said his main priority was the medical material on board the truck, related to blood tests, which he did not want to lose.
“I just wanted to get out of there,” Mr McLeod said when asked what his thoughts were as he sat atop his truck.
“I was worried about the medical stuff, I didn’t want to get that wet and wanted to get out of there myself.
“If I didn’t have that medical stuff I would have probably jumped.”
Mr McLeod, a husband and father of three, was on a regular delivery run from Wangaratta to Albury.
The transport owner-operator has more than 20 years’ experience driving trucks.
“I’ve driven all around the place where it’s flooded but never had a drama,” Mr McLeod said.
“You make a decision and you think you’re right and then it goes pear-shaped.
“I’ve driven through Queensland through floods and through central NSW and I was in Bright when we had the last lot of big floods down there.”
