‘A lot of pain’: USPS mail carrier, expectant father, paralyzed after tree falls on truck

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ/Gray News) - A Postal Service worker in Virginia suffered serious injuries after a tree fell on his truck while he was delivering mail last week.

United States Postal Service mail carrier Craig Musil was out on his delivery route when a tree fell on his mail truck on Sept. 27.

Musil’s wife said the tree pinned him in the truck and broke his neck. He also suffered a severe spinal cord injury and needed emergency surgery.

“I just heard a loud thud,” Garrett Harris, who first spotted Musil inside the damaged truck, said. “He was in pretty rough shape. He was bent over and in a lot of pain.”

Harris says he instantly called 911, and afterward, Musil asked Harris to call his wife.

“I could just hear him screaming in the background that he loved me,” Kara Musil, Craig Musil’s wife, said.

Craig Musil was rushed to the hospital but had no feeling in his legs and remains paralyzed after the incident, according to his family.

“He was a very active person before the accident … but now not having the use of his legs is very devastating,” Kara Musil said.

The family is trying to figure out how to not only take care of Craig Musil but also their 5-year-old daughter while the two are expecting another baby girl within the next four months.

“It’s very stressful, I feel torn because I want to be with him all the time, but I also know I need to spend time with our daughter,” Kara Musil said.

The mail carrier’s wife said she just wished that it wasn’t a priority for mail to be delivered last week in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

“Our mail carriers and our delivery carriers are putting their lives on the line to deliver your mail, and people don’t always recognize that,” she said.

In the meantime, Kara Musil says she’s doing everything she can to support her family. She also started a GoFundMe for further assistance.

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