'Just a miracle': Survivor recalls moment when dump truck slammed into restaurant

A Puyallup man had just seconds to dodge an unstoppable dump truck.  The truck slammed into the restaurant, sending debris -- and him -- flying.

Mike Wahl man can hardly believe he survived.

Everyone thought only a worker was inside the Subway.

But Wahl was sitting inside the shop when he saw the dump truck headed his way.

"Yeah, the most scary thing I've ever went through," Wahl said.

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The 44-year-old man spoke just one day after an out-of-control dump truck left a path of destruction before barreling toward the Subway shop where he eats every workday. He soon realized he had to get out of the way.

"I don't even know (how)," Wahl said.

"I jumped out of my chair. The wall was about two feet behind me. So there was nowhere to go. No door. No exit. No window. Basically I jumped out of my chair and covered my head.

And figured I was going to get hit. Whatever happened, happened (because) obviously, the truck (was) as big as the store.

He says he could smell the truck's brakes, heard a sound and worried the truck might catch fire. But it was the broken sprinkler system inside the restaurant.

"I pushed chairs and tables off me, whatever the debris was that knocked me around," he said. "And I was about, I don't know, maybe a foot away from the front tire of the dump truck."

Wahl says when he got outside, a swarm of good Samaritans came over.

He and three other people, including the 25-year-old female driver of a white van, went to Harborview Medical Center.

He took a selfie while waiting in the ER. And he is still marveling over the fact that nobody died.

"I don't know how it happened," he said. "Just a miracle."

In fact, the only person still at Harborview was the driver of the van.  According to the latest update, she remains in serious condition.

Cox Media Group