Teen pinned down by trailer freed, flown to area hospital

Published 12:00 am Monday, August 13, 2012

A 16-year-old boy was airlifted to a Winston-Salem hospital Monday afternoon after the tongue of a trailer loaded with gravel pinned his left leg to the ground.
Wake Forest University Baptist Air Care landed at the intersection of Bringle Ferry and Richfield roads near a gas station. The accident took place nearby, in the 12500 block of Bringle Ferry Road.
A witness told emergency crews it looked like the teen was trying to hook the trailer up to a vehicle, but the tongue jack gave way and the tongue caught his left leg. A reporter on the scene said the trailer was about the size of a small pop-up camper.
It took crews just minutes to inflate bags that lifted the trailer off the teen. Rowan EMS then took him to the helicopter landing site.
The accident occurred in the front yard of a home. Crews did not see a vehicle there when they arrived and do not know if a family member moved it out of the way after the accident.