SALISBURY — A truck ended up in flames and the driver was airlifted to hospital following a crash into a ditch on West Innes Street around midnight Sunday.

According to a witness, the red pickup truck and she were the only cars on the road at the time, and the truck appeared to be speeding when its driver passed her. He ended up losing control of the truck, and the vehicle flipped and landed in the ditch, she said. She immediately called 911. She said she struggled to process what had just happened in describing it to the dispatcher, but she did her best to explain it. At this time, the accident is still under investigation and no official cause of the crash has been released,

That same witness said a man from another car who stopped to help pulled the driver of the truck out of the vehicle but firefighters had to work to put the fire out. At one point, a neighbor said she saw what appeared to be a small explosion and the fire flared up again, but that was after the driver had been removed.

Initial reports were the truck was a Ford F150, but that information has been updated to reflect it was actually a Dodge 1500.

Firefighters and EMS arrived and called for a medical helicopter. Air Care One landed on the soccer field at North Hills School on Sells Road to take the person to Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem. A dog in the truck did not survive.

Another witness, Kaiden Porter, said he was walking back from Catawba College when he “heard a loud car revving sound, then a crash and a pop, like a firework. I rushed over to the accident and there were five other people already there helping. Three of them pulled the unconscious man out of the car.” He said he heard the dog crying but the dog did not survive. He said the truck was “completely in flames” in the ditch.