Traffic was stopped for hours after the Thursday afternoon accident.

LIVE OAK — An accident on the I-10 bridge Thursday afternoon ended with a driver being life-flighted to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.

The driver, identified by Florida Highway Patrol as H. Varnedoe, lost control of his truck around 12:23 p.m., overturning the vehicle and pinning him down.

His injuries were “serious, but not life-threatening,” according to an FHP report.

The accident stopped traffic for hours, backing vehicles up for miles.

Dondra Shultz left her house in Seminole County at 6:30 a.m. Thursday for what should have been a five hour drive. She was heading to Florida State University to pick up her daughter, a pre-med student.

First, she got stuck in traffic for two hours behind a crash on Interstate 75. Then things got worse when, on Interstate 10, the pickup truck in front of her lost control just before diving into the guard rail on the Suwannee River bridge.

“It went airborne after that,” Shultz said. “He flipped about three times. I was just hysterical. I didn’t know what to do.”

Mark Cirami was driving his tow truck when he saw the vehicle swerve off the road before it began to fishtail. It seemed to Cirami like the driver might gain control, but it was all over once he hit the rail. The truck came to rest in the middle of the bridge, lying on its side. Cirami immediately called 911 around 12:20 p.m.

“Then we went over to him, but he was encapsulated in the vehicle,” he said. “He was talking to us. He was very coherent at the time.”

The truck landed on the driver’s side, so he was pinned to the road by the roof.

The other drivers tried their best to keep the man comfortable as they waited for help to arrive. Cirami said it took about 20 minutes for first emergency responders to show.

Department of Agriculture Law Enforcement Officer Jason Hale arrived first to the scene.

“It wasn’t real pretty,” Hale said. “He was coming back from Shands for cancer treatment.”

Hale said that Madison County Fire and Rescue showed up and cut the roof off the truck to get him out. The man was then put into a helicopter and airlifted away.

During all this, traffic on I-10 was backed up for miles. People near the front were forced to wait more than two hours for a tow truck to arrive and take the crippled vehicle off the bridge.

“It’s been the worst drive of my life,” Shultz said. “But I just thank God he’s still alive.”

She called her daughter to let her know she would be running late.