July 29, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
A Sparta man was airlifted Saturday after his dump truck loaded with top soil overturned on Cookeville Boat Dock Road in the Austin Bottom Community.
Sergeant Tracy White of the Tennessee Highway Patrol said 53 year old Johnny Jones was driving down a steep grade in his 1982 Ford dump truck for the Top Soil Company of Cookeville, when he went off the left side of the road and struck an embankment causing the truck to rollover onto its top in the roadway. Of course, the load of top soil spilled out as well.
The DeKalb County Fire Department’s Extrication and Rescue Team was called to the scene because Jones was entrapped in the truck and the Putnam County Rescue Squad was also summoned to render mutual aid support. They were able to gain access to Jones with their extrication equipment and removed him from the truck. He was treated at the scene by EMS and airlifted by helicopter ambulance to Skyline Medical Center in Nashville. The DeKalb County Fire Department set up the landing zone for the airlift. Jones claimed his brakes failed, causing him to lose control of the truck.