'I'm under the (deleted) truck!'

Kevin! This one is amazing, thanks for sending.
'I'm under the (deleted) truck!'
BY JIM HANNAH | JHANNAH@NKY.COM
Kentucky Enquirer

His screams diminished during the 2½-hour phone call with 911 emergency dispatchers.

"I'm about to die," he yelled dozens of times.

Andres Vasquez, 20, of Verona managed to call 911 at 2:35 a.m. Thursday after wrecking his Ford Explorer on Violet Road near the Grant County line.

But Vasquez, who speaks with a heavy Spanish accent, could not tell dispatchers where he wrecked.

When repeatedly asked his location, his answer was always the same: "I'm under the (expletive) truck."

As the dispatcher tried to make sense of the ramblings of an injured and panicked man, Vasquez said, "Please, I can't take it anymore. Send everything you got."

After initially telling dispatchers someone threw a car on him, he admitted to crashing after he "got drunk." Boone County Sheriff's spokesman Tom Scheben later said alcohol was a suspected factor in the single-vehicle wreck.

A frustrated dispatcher asked Vasquez to stay calm, stop struggling to get out from under the truck and take deep breaths. More than one dispatcher tried in vain to get Vasquez to give them any clue about his whereabouts.

"Listen to me," the dispatcher said. "Listen to me now! If you want to survive this you are going to have to pay attention to what I'm asking you."

Vasquez finally uttered "Verona," and the hunt was on.

Five Boone County Sheriff's deputies, a Grant County Sheriff's deputy, and a Kentucky State trooper converged on the area searching for the wreck.

...(sic)

The mobile phone's battery never died during the search, but Vasquez appeared to have repeatedly hung up on operators. He would usually pick back up after putting the dispatcher on hold for a while with the explicit lyrics of Snoop Dogg's "Party with a D.P.G" playing in the background.

Nearly two hours after the original call, at 4:03 a.m., a woman driving on Violet Road en route to work spotted Vasquez's vehicle and called 911.

She confirmed a Hispanic man was pinned under a truck and crying. She said she could not climb down to where he was but yelled in broken Spanish that help was on the way.

Vasquez was alert and conscious when he was put into an AirCare helicopter and flown to University Hospital. He was listed in good condition and was released Thursday evening.

Staff writer Jennifer Baker contributed.