NORWAY — Police said an Oxford man escaped serious injury Monday afternoon when his tractor-trailer truck flipped on Crockett Ridge Road and pinned him in the cab for two hours. 

William Penfold, 53, was transported by ambulance to a hospital after a two-hour ordeal in which emergency crews worked frantically to extricate him from the smashed cab of his 1986 Freightliner. 

A witness told Norway police officer Christopher Saunders that the truck, which was hauling several tons of large stones, was climbing a hill around noon when its drive shaft broke and it began to slide downhill. 

Several hundred feet of thick, black rubber traced the truck’s descent as Penfold apparently attempted to guide it backward. Where the road levelled off, the trailer apparently jack-knifed, causing the cab to rise in the air — narrowly missing a telephone pole — and slamming driver’s-side-down over both traffic lanes, Saunders said Oxford resident Phil Richardson told him. 

Richardson, one of the first people on scene, said Penfold was alert and used a cellphone to call for a wrecker because he was concerned he was blocking the road. Saunders said Penfold was delivering the stone to a job site just over the crest of the hill. 

“I know him, he’s tough as nails,” Richardson said. 

Penfold was pinned between the seat and cab, and it took crews over two hours to extricate him. An auger truck, excavator and several jacks attempted to lift the cab, which at one point slipped off supports and crunched loudly on the ground. Eventually, firefighters crawled inside the cabin and cut the seat out. 

More than 30 first responders from Poland, Norway, Paris and Oxford were at the scene. A LifeFlight helicopter touched down in the middle of Route 118 but was not needed because Penfold was not seriously injured.

It was unclear where Penfold was taken for treatment and his exact injuries.

Penfold, who’s listed in tax records as the owner of Oxford Auto Salvage, walked away from a crash that hospitalized two others in February 2014 when a car pulled out in front of his tow truck traveling along Route 26 in Oxford, according to Sun Journal records. 

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