A Franklin man was airlifted Wednesday night after the track hoe he was using rolled down a hillside in a remote area off Puckett Point Road just after 9 p.m.

Brad Jackson, 41, reportedly suffered a broken back, fractured skull and internal bleeding in the incident. Jackson was apparently thrown through the door of the cabbed excavator at some point during the tumble, taking the door off the hinges. The Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad retrieved the injured man from the steep incline in a Stokes basket, and drove him to meet DeKalb EMS at the top of the hill.

“Our rope training really paid off,” rescue squad member Joe Johnson told the Review. “Each man had a job to do, and he did it.”

Kristie Johnson, a DeKalb EMS member as well as a member of the rescue squad, scaled the incline to treat Jackson before he was removed from the scene and transported to a landing zone on Highway 56 near Ponder Road. From there Jackson was flown to Vanderbilt medical Center in Nashville, where he is listed in critical condition.

The sheriff’s department and members of the county fire department also assisted at the scene.