BLAND — Volunteer firemen from Bland, Belle and Owensville teamed up Friday afternoon to extricate an injured man from Bland from his vehicle after his went off Highway 28 and slid down a steep embankment.

According to a reported filed by Missouri State Highway Patrol Cpl. Coby G. Holzschuh about the crash reported at 3:45 p.m. March 1, Jason L. Kruse, 46, received moderate injuries and was transported by ambulance to Phelps Health in Rolla.

Kruse was driving a 2007 Ford Expedition west on Highway 28 a quarter mile east of the Route B cut-off east of Bland. Kruse’s vehicle went off the left side of the highway, down a steep embankment and struck a tree.

Firemen, with assistance from members of the man’s family and citizens, first had to remove several  small trees and scrub brush around the wrecked vehicle to allow easier access to the injured motorist. Firemen also received assistance as they moved Kruse down the hill on a stretcher as participants in the extrication put hands on each other’s backs to  keep everyone in the line upright on the slope. Firemen wheeled Kruse to an ambulance parked at the nearby residence.