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CBS News
7 days ago
- Health
- CBS News
New Jersey grandfather injured in dump truck crash is grateful to be alive, family says
Grandfather injured in New Jersey dump truck crash is grateful to be alive, family says Grandfather injured in New Jersey dump truck crash is grateful to be alive, family says Grandfather injured in New Jersey dump truck crash is grateful to be alive, family says A grandfather remains hospitalized a week after a dump truck demolished his home in Woodbury Heights, New Jersey. The crash was captured on dashcam video as the driver suffered a medical emergency. "Just seeing it for the first time was heart-shattering, I mean it felt like my world stopped moving," Kera McKnight said. McKnight rushed to her grandfather's home after learning about the crash. All she knew was that an out-of-control dump truck smashed into his home. CBS News Philadelphia "It was the scariest 10 minutes of my life because at that point, none of us knew what to expect driving up to that," McKnight said. "He is grateful to be alive." Nick Matteo, who is 72, was sitting in his favorite chair in the living room last Tuesday afternoon when the crash happened. His granddaughters say he remembers hearing a noise and then the truck blasted through. "It blew him through two walls. He went through the one wall behind him and landed in the bedroom kind of hanging out of the house, and he was upside down between the dresser and the bed," said Shelby Zakreski, Matteo's granddaughter. Neighbors ran to help Matteo, and first responders were able to pull him to safety. Miraculously, he only suffered some scratches and bumps and bruises. "We're very lucky that he had a guardian angel really surrounding him, which we truly believe was our grandmother," Zakreski said. Matteo's wife died in 2022. Zakreski is thankful the urn filled with her grandmother's ashes was found in the rubble. She said it's all they have left after decades worth of memories were wiped away when their grandfather's home was demolished hours after the crash. CBS News Philadelphia "It was definitely emotional," Zakreski said. "All the pictures, our bedroom, like we grew up and had our own bedroom there with the cloud ceiling my grandmom hand painted." A week later, the mountain of debris is gone, and Matteo's property has been completely cleared. Now, many of his neighbors, even complete strangers, are stepping up to help him recover. Zakreski has since started a fundraising campaign, which has raised nearly $14,000. "Above all he is just so grateful for the amount of donations that have come through and the amount of well wishes that have come through," Zakreski said. The driver who suffered a medical emergency before the crash also miraculously survived. He has been released from the hospital and is back home recovering.
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Dashcam footage captures moment dump truck smashes into home after driver suffers 'medical emergency'
Terrifying dashboard camera footage captured the moment a dump truck crashed into a New Jersey home after the driver suffered a 'medical emergency'. The 73,000lb truck, which was loaded with concrete sand, smashed into the Woodbury Heights home on Tuesday. Woodbury Police were called to the scene at the intersection of Woodbury-Glassboro Road and Fairview Avenue at 1.34pm. The commercial truck, owned by Zeisloft Trucking, was traveling northbound when it struck a telephone pole and continued down the street until it collided with the home. Dashcam footage obtained by WPVI showed the truck driving past several cars before picking up speed and veering off the road and into the home at nearly 50mph. First responders rescued the resident and the truck driver from the rubble, but the home had to be totaled. Neighbor, Derek Keating, told Fox 29 that he ran over to help, and a natural gas line started to leak before first responders arrived. He said: 'He was screaming for help, and he wasn't sure how bad he was hurt. I could see that he was bleeding, and he was telling me he had some medical issues.' 'The house is totaled. I've never seen that much devastation on a house. I mean, I've seen cars hit houses, but not like this.' Charles Zeisloft, the owner of Zeisloft Trucking, told the local news station the driver had experienced a 'Grand Mal' seizure behind the wheel. He identified the driver as a man named Timmy, who has 25 years of experience and was on his way home when he crashed. Zeisloft said: 'Timmy, the driver, has been with us probably for 25 years. Loyal, dependable driver and he just lost his wife about a year ago.' He added that his employee called him once he came to after the crash and had no idea what happened. Zeisloft said: 'He wanted to tell me that he was in an accident. And that's what he called me about. I said, "Timmy, I'm already here". I said, "You are down in the basement of a home and I'm happy to hear you are OK".' Another neighbor told NBC Philadelphia the man inside the home was recovering from surgery when the crash happened. 'I feel really horrible for the driver, and I feel very sorry for that man cause he is elderly and apparently just had surgery and was using a walker. He's older,' one witness, Lori Denham, said. The homeowner's brother told CBS News Philadelphia that the man is recovering at the hospital, and he was sitting in his favorite chair when the truck crashed and sent him flying through the walls. Horrified neighbors told the local news outlets about the chaos that ensued after the crash. One neighbor, Samantha Burke, said: 'My son and I were walking out of our door when I heard a loud crash as we were coming out. The next thing I know there was a truck in our neighbor's yard, in his house." 'I heard my neighbor yelling, but the house was starting to crumble, so we couldn't do anything.'
CBS News
21-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
New Jersey crews had to clear debris, stabilize house before rescuing dump truck driver in Woodbury Heights
Specialized rescue crews responded Tuesday afternoon in Woodbury Heights, New Jersey, to save a man trapped inside a dump truck lodged inside a crumbled house. There are only a few search and rescue units in South Jersey that can tackle that kind of emergency, and the Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, made up of units from Cherry Hill, Camden and Winslow Township fire departments, were already behind because it took them about 25 minutes just to get to the scene in Gloucester County. "It requires the most manpower, the most equipment," Captain Stephen Kinky with the Cherry Hill Fire Department said of the shoring process to stabilize a structure prior to a rescue. On Tuesday afternoon, Lt. Sean Carlin said his team had to meticulously assess the situation and evaluate the next steps when they arrived on scene. "We have to worry about a couple things: One, structural integrity; two, a gas leak going on; and three, there's a life at stake, which is the most important thing," Carlin said. Fortunately, the utility company was able to shut off the gas, and the truck driver was alert and talking to first responders. Rescue crews then focused on the structural integrity of the demolished house but before they could even begin the shoring process, crews had to clear mounds of debris because the entire first floor had been blown out by the impact of the truck. Rescue squads in Camden County regularly practice shoring a building using mechanical struts that fit together to achieve the necessary bracing. The struts are kept on a rescue truck for this very type of operation. "They make life very simple. If we don't have them, we're going back to old school to cutting wood, measuring, putting wedges and building shores. These (mechanical struts) streamline that and speed us up in the process," Kinky said. Once the house was structurally safe, crews were able to slide the driver out of the dump truck and bring him to safety.
The Drive
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Drive
Look at the Hole This 73,000-Pound Dump Truck Punched Through an NJ House
The latest car news, reviews, and features. Imagine you're sitting in your favorite chair when a dump truck smashes through your house like a 36-ton Kool-Aid man and sends you through two walls. That's what happened to one Woodbury Heights, New Jersey-native this past Tuesday. The driver lost consciousness at the wheel after suffering a medical emergency while hauling a load of concrete sand, and drove straight through the homeowner's house like it was tissue paper. Somehow, everyone made it out alive. In the dashcam video from ABC6 , you can see the moment when the driver loses consciousness, as the truck starts to veer left across the double yellow lines. According to Charles Zeisloft, owner of the trucking company, the fully loaded dump truck weighed about 73,000 pounds. The chaos such a truck can cause while out of control is unimaginable. And yet, the chaos was kept to a relative minimum. Outside of smashing through the house, the only damage caused by the runaway truck was to a telephone pole, which was snapped and uprooted like a toothpick after being hit by the massive hauler. Not only did it drive through the telephone pole as if it weren't there, but the impact didn't slow it down. You shudder to think what would have happened if it had a head-on collision with a car in oncoming traffic. Despite its potential for destruction, neither the driver nor the homeowner suffered any life-threatening injuries. While the homeowner was injured, he was conscious and able to call out to his neighbor, who came to help. 'I was able to make eye contact with him through a hole where the floor and well had separated, and I was able to talk to him for about 10 minutes until the paramedics got there,' neighbor David Keating told ABC6 . When you see the truck stuck inside the house, it looks like it just made a big hole. However, the house's structure was destroyed and shifted several feet off the foundation. After everyone was pulled out and sent to the hospital, and the truck was removed, the house needed to be torn down by a demolition crew. This could have been so much worse. Not only for the driver and the homeowner, but also for other drivers on the road, a woman who was reportedly walking her child down the same street moments earlier, or anyone who could've been hit by flying debris. Remarkably, no one was critically injured. And now I'm going to fear any heavy truck driving in the opposite direction to me. Got tips? Send 'em to tips@ Nico DeMattia is a staff writer at The Drive. He started writing about cars on his own blog to express his opinions when no one else would publish them back in 2015, and eventually turned it into a full-time career.
Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Heart stopping dashcam after dump truck driver had medical emergency while careening towards family home
Terrifying dashboard camera footage captured the moment a dump truck crashed into a New Jersey home after the driver suffered from a 'medical emergency.' The 73,000-pound truck loaded with concrete sand smashed into the Woodbury Heights home Tuesday. Woodbury Police were called to the scene at the intersection of Woodbury-Glassboro Road and Fairview Avenue at 1:34 p.m. The commercial truck, owned by Zeisloft Trucking, was traveling northbound when it struck a telephone pole and continued down the street until it collided with the occupied home. Dashcam footage obtained by WPVI showed the truck driving past several cars before picking up speed and veering off the road and into the home at nearly 50 mph. First responders rescued the resident and the truck driver from the rubble, but the home had to be totaled. Neighbor Derek Keating told Fox 29 he ran over to help, and a natural gas line started to leak before first responders arrived. 'He was screaming for help, and he wasn't sure how bad he was hurt. I could see that he was bleeding, and he was telling me he had some medical issues,' said Keating. 'The house is totaled. I've never seen that much devastation on a house. I mean, I've seen cars hit houses, but not like this.' Charles Zeisloft, the owner of Zeisloft Trucking, told the local news station the driver had experienced a 'Grand Mal' seizure behind the wheel. He identified the driver as a man named Timmy who has 25 years of experience and was on his way home when he crashed. 'Timmy, the driver, has been with us probably for 25 years. Loyal, dependable driver and he just lost his wife about a year ago,' the boss said. Zeisloft said his employee called him once he came to after the crash and had no idea what happened. 'He wanted to tell me that he was in an accident. And that's what he called me about. I said, "Timmy, I'm already here." I said, "You are down in the basement of a home and I'm happy to hear you are OK,"' said Zeisloft. Another neighbor told NBC Philadelphia the man inside the home was recovering from surgery when the crash happened. 'I feel really horrible for the driver, and I feel very sorry for that man cause he is elderly and apparently just had surgery and was using a walker. He's older,' one witness, Lori Denham, said. A neighbor said he ran over to help, and a natural gas line started to leak before first responders arrived The homeowner's brother told CBS News Philadelphia that the man is recovering at the hospital, and he was sitting in his favorite chair when the truck crashed and sent him flying through the walls. Horrified neighbors told the local news outlets about the chaos that ensued after the crash. 'My son and I were walking out of our door when I heard a loud crash as we were coming out,' said Samantha Burke. 'The next thing I know there was a truck in our neighbor's yard, in his house." 'I heard my neighbor yelling, but the house was starting to crumble, so we couldn't do anything.'
