One of Gold Rush star Rick Ness‘ employees found herself in a near-fatal work accident when she almost drove a rock truck into the pond. While disposing of debris from the digging site, rock truck driver Leah Turnbull veered off the dirt road too far and drove the front end of the massive vehicle into the silt-filled water. As mud quickly filled the cab of the truck, Turnbull thankfully escaped without any scratches. Though, she appeared quite shaken after nearly drowning. Ness, who shortly appeared on the scene, made sure his employee was in one piece before assessing the damage to his half-million-dollar equipment.
Keeping a level head, the Gold Rush boss called to his other employees to help him pull the vehicle from the 20-foot deep tailings pond. Unfortunately, with the position of the truck and the weight of paydirt in the bed, it posed a tremendous challenge. The first task was to remove as much paydirt as they could from the back of the truck to lighten the load. Then fellow crew member Brennan Ruault would pull the truck straight out of the pond by hooking it to the bucket of his backhoe.
Watch what happens below.
Fearing that any wrong move would submerge the cab (and the engine) of the rock truck in water, the Gold Rush team knew they had to work slowly and carefully.
To help keep the front of the truck from moving any further into the silt, Gold Rush mine boss Ness attached the front toe hitch to one backhoe, while Ruault pulled the back of the truck with another. Once he started to feel resistance, Ness hopped into the cab of the rock truck and put it in reverse to give the push the vehicle needed back onto dry land.
‘Gold Rush’ Star Expresses Frustration with New Staff Members
Even though Ness isn’t one to scream at his team, that doesn’t mean he’s incapable of expressing his anger. When Turnbull tried to laugh of the tension of the situation, her Gold Rush boss didn’t want to hear it.
“I’m fired aren’t I,” Turnbull asked Ness with a chuckle. “Is it really, really bad?”
“Yeah it’s really f– bad,” the Gold Rush star responded. “It’s not – we’re not laughing about this.”
Then when Turnbull approached Ness again later, he dismissed her until the team was able to save the rock truck from submersion. However, despite his anger regarding his expensive equipment, Ness revealed to another crew member that his true frustration came from almost losing a brand new employee.
“This is literally the f–worst case scenario right now,” Ness said. “I f– hired new people, train them up in a rock truck and then watch them almost f– drown.”
Thankfully, for the Gold Rush boss, both his employee and vehicle made it out of the situation safely.
