Mail Carrier Accidentally Drives Over Man Napping in His Front Yard

An Alabama man was napping in his front yard when he woke up to agonizing pain as a mail carrier truck ran over him.

Brian Jenkins had been lying under a tree on Oct. 17 near his home in Baldwin County — just a foot away from his front door — when he became pinned under the vehicle.

"It was 20 minutes of the most agonizing moment of our lives while we had to wait for EMTs to arrive," Ashley Ard, Jenkins’ fiancée, told WEAR-TV.

Ard said she was working at her job inside their home when she heard Jenkins screaming. She said she ran outside to find him trapped under the vehicle. "I was scared. It was horrific," she told the station. "Like he said, he felt like he was going to die. I was scared that was going to happen. I felt helpless."

Ard said the postal driver was confused as to where the screams were coming from. "I laid under with him and told her to call 911. He is literally burning. His skin was literally hanging off of the oil pan. And there was literally nothing I could do except hold him and beg him to stay with me," Ard told the outlet.

Ard said Jenkins drifted in and out of consciousness as they waited for paramedics. He had to be flown by helicopter to the hospital, where he received treatment for his injuries, which included second and third-degree burns and fractures in his back.

The couple is now pursuing legal action. Ard said the mail carrier delivers mail to their home every day and is familiar with the property, but she said the driver said she did not see Jenkins under the tree.

"He didn't ask for this. He was lying in his yard," Ard told WEAR-TV. “And then awakes to a vehicle on top of him and then in pain. He didn't deserve this at all.”

The U.S. Postal Service said in a statement to the outlet that it “does not publicly discuss personal matters.”