Construction worker survives terrifying plunge as road disappears beneath him

ELLIJAY, Ga. - A construction worker says he’s lucky to be alive after the back road he was driving on disappeared beneath him. 

It happened on Ravencliff Road, near Ellijay, in Gilmer County, and he ended up in a creek. 

The father of two says there was nothing to alert him of any danger.

What they're saying:

Greg Crook says he could’ve died. "I am lucky to be alive," Crook said.

Crook says that last Thursday night, his GPS directed him down Ravencliff, a rural gravel and dirt road in Gilmer County.

"The road got a little bit rough, so I slowed down," Crook said.

He says it was pitch black. "You could not see nothing, it was dark," Crook said.

Crook kept driving. "All of a sudden, the road was gone," he said.

Crook says he couldn’t see the sharp drop-off and the danger right in front of him. "Before I could even see what was going on, I’m busted up in a hole," Crook said.

His car plunged off the edge, tumbling down the banks into a rocky creek. "I’m like ‘Oh my god! What happened?’ I just opened the door and got out, and I’m in a couple of feet of water," Crook said.

He was badly injured, his car smashed. "I had blood all over me," Crook said. "Tore my skin off my eyelid, busted my eyebrow, my head swelled up pretty much like a pumpkin."

He clawed his way out of the steep ditch in total darkness. "It felt like i could never get out."

Crook says the barriers now in place at the site were nowhere in sight the night of his crash.

"There was no barriers, no signs of any kind whatsoever, no caution tape," Crook said.

What we know:

The Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office posted an alert on social media, warning of washouts on the road over the last few months, urging people not to remove barriers. "If they were. I would not have been hurt, anybody else would not have been hurt," Crook said.

The construction worker eventually got to safety. The father of two says his ordeal could have ended a lot worse. "It could have been anybody’s child, daughter, son, wife," Crook said. "They could’ve lost their father that night."

What we don't know:

FOX 5 called the sheriff’s office and is waiting for a response.