PEORIA, AZ -- Police have released a 9-1-1 call made after an off-road vehicle overturned in an abandoned mine shaft Monday and trapped a man inside for nearly 2 hours.
Hear the 9-1-1 call, see video from the scene
The driver of the vehicle was with two others when his Jeep crashed into the mine hole near Lake Pleasant.
All three were in an area that had been closed for more than a year because of damage by off-road vehicles, according to Mike Tellef, spokesman with the Peoria Fire Department.
After the crash, 19-year-old driver Kevin Michael Gallegos and 23-year-old passenger Charlieann Brady were able to climb out of the upside-down Jeep, according to Tellef.
Both escaped with only minor injuries.
See pictures from the scene in the attached photo slideshowHowever, 32-year-old Thomas Lippre got trapped in the front passenger seat, held in by his seatbelt with an estimated 100-foot drop to the base of the open mine shaft.
"He was seat-belted in and that's what saved him," said Tellef.
Lippre was trapped for two hours in 110+ degree heat.
"When the 911 call came in, it made it even more difficult to locate the incident because the people involved did not know their location, a DPS helicopter was used to find them about 45-minutes after that initial call," said Tellef.
Firefighters from Peoria, Glendale and Phoenix responded to the rescue.
After being pulled out of the Jeep, Tellef said Lippre was air-lifted to a Valley hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Tellef said all three involved will be charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor.
