An ordinary morning pumping septic tanks ended in an amazing survival story for Bruce Crank, owner of Bayou Septic Tank Service in Shreveport, La.
Crank, 49, was on U.S. 80 en route to pump a residential septic tank in Bossier Parish June 27 when a front tire blew on his 1993 GMC vacuum truck. “It sucked the truck up against the concrete and metal guardrail, but I got off it,” says Crank. The next second, the vehicle swerved back, crashed through the guardrail, plunged 20 feet into Fifi Bayou, and bounced off its muddy bottom.
The impact tore off the truck’s front end at the cab, hurling the engine 20 feet under the bridge. The passenger side was compressed flat. “By the time the truck hit the ground, I’d pulled my legs out of the well and was in a little bitty spot on the driver’s side just big enough for me,” says Crank, who is 6 feet tall and weighs 220 pounds.
“The windshield shattered, so I climbed out through the hole,” he says. The escape scraped a large piece of skin off Crank’s back and left minor gashes in his head.
Rescuers arriving at the scene couldn’t believe Crank was alive and relatively unharmed. “They wanted me to go to a hospital, but I was feeling fine,” he says.
AFTERMATH
Crank, who pumps only residential septic tanks in a 45-mile radius from Shreveport, had 400 gallons of septage in the truck’s 3,600-gallon steel tank. The muck in the creek bed and the tank not hitting anything hard when it landed prevented an implosion. The truck was his only company vehicle.
Sheriff’s deputies said the truck leaked about 100 gallons of diesel fuel. Cleaning up the spill cost $8,000, which was covered by Crank’s insurance.
Two tow trucks, working like cranes from the bridge, pulled the totaled truck out of the bayou. After righting the vehicle, the drivers hooked cables around the tank on both ends, winched it straight up through the hole in the guardrail, and set it down. “It was amazing,” says Crank. “I didn’t think they’d ever get it up.”
Crank, who has been in business for 12 years, will receive enough compensation from his insurance company to make a down payment on a replacement vehicle. “I’m so busy that I turn down about eight jobs a week,” he says. Crank discharges at either of two treatment plants in Shreveport.
“The only terrible part was dealing with being out of work for a while,” says Crank, who was asked by a TV reporter if he would ever drive again. “I told him, ‘Yeah, I’ll be back driving in two weeks, if I can find a truck.’ I wasn’t going to let him turn me into a sob story. He didn’t like that. He was looking for a victim — somebody who’d cry on camera — but found a pumper instead.”
United Site Services Pumper Killed in Traffic Crash
A longtime service technician and driver for the California division of United Site Services drowned July 15 when his truck collided with a car and both vehicles plunged into a canal.
Luis Llamas Perez, 45, died after the driver of a sport utility vehicle apparently went through a stop sign and collided with Perez’s vacuum service truck, according to news accounts in the Patterson Irrigator in Patterson, Calif. Both vehicles went through a guardrail and plunged into the Delta-Mendota Canal. The driver of the SUV and five passengers, all local farm workers, also died in the crash.
Perez had been a driver for United Site Services for eight years, and was servicing portable restrooms in a nearby orchard before the accident. He was married, with three children.
“We’ve lost a great family man and dedicated team member,” said Kevin Mellifont, California regional vice president for United Site Services.
“Luis Llamas was a tremendous husband, father and long-term employee with United Site Services. We are deeply saddened for his loss and our hearts are especially heavy for his wife, Magdalena, and their children. We also extend our sincere sympathy to the families of the other individuals involved in this tragic accident.’’ Mellifont said in a statement.
