ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News has learned a man is recovering after part of a massive tree collapsed onto his van in southwest Atlanta, trapping him inside.
Atlanta fire officials said the crash happened around 6 p.m. Wednesday on Avon Avenue at Lee Street.
There weren’t any storms in the area, so it’s believed that tree just randomly fell.
“I asked him if he was OK. He told me, 'Yes.' I didn’t believe him so I video chatted him,” the victim's daughter, Kerri Draper said. “He told me he was just driving down the road and he swerved to miss and he saw it, and it hit him anyways."
The victim's family said they rushed to the scene after the man called his daughter from inside the car.
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More than two dozen firefighters raced to the scene.
“The power lines that were still on the vehicle were still hot, so we couldn’t make access to the car without getting the power shut down," Atlanta Fire Sgt. Cortez Stafford said.
The man was finally rescued around 7:30 p.m. He was carried away on a stretcher to an ambulance.
“I stuck my head in and told him I loved him,” Draper said.
The man had some back pain but is otherwise OK.
About 800 homes were without power at one point, but it now appears power has been restored to all of them.