Missing man survived 5 days in his truck following crash
Duncan Moffat is lucky to be alive after he was trapped in his smashed vehicle for five days off the side of a remote road on northern Vancouver island.
The 23-year-old man was found by a hunter, metres down a steep embankment.
Emergency crews were quickly called and Moffat was extracted using the jaws of life.
Moffat's uncle, Bill Macnab, said the last time he saw his nephew was Saturday Nov. 3, when he had just finished picking apples in his Dad's backyard in the remote North Island community of Sayward, B.C.
He was heading to visit friends in Campbell River, and the family believes he likely left there five days before he was found, on Tuesday Nov. 12.
Anxious after not hearing from Moffat for days, the family was looking into renting a helicopter to do an aerial search when it got the call he had been found, almost 15 kilometres south of his father's home.
His uncle says he was found conscious but delirious and badly hurt, with several broken bones and internal injuries. He believes the apples he'd picked from his father's home kept him alive.
Father follows hunch
Macnab said Moffat's father followed a hunch — and after seeing an ambulance race by his home — he quickly got in his car and followed it.
"Lo and behold, when he gets to the accident scene and looks over the cliff he sees his truck. Obviously, his heart fell out of his chest," he said.
Macnab said his nephew had been experiencing a lack of direction of late, and he hoped that this could be a much needed wake-up call.
"I think he's had an epiphany out there, I, surely as hell, hope ... he knows he has a second chance here," he said.
Moffat is expected to be in hospital in Victoria for another three weeks.
With files from Michael Tymchuk
