A 65-year-old Greeneville man escaped serious injury on Thursday when the pickup truck he was driving went off Asheville Highway near Marshall Lane and plunged into a deep ravine.

Greeneville Police Lt. Alan Dotson said Marvin Dale Ottinger, 65, told police after the accident that he apparently lost consciousness as he drove the Ford Sport-Trac south along the Asheville Highway at about 3:30 p.m.

Asheville Highway was closed for about two hours by the accident and repairs to the broken utility pole and fallen power lines.

Dotson said the truck veered off the road and struck at least one utility pole before plunging down a steep embankment and coming to rest on its top.

Ottinger was trapped inside the overturned pickup until he was freed by volunteers from the Greeneville Emergency & Rescue Squad with assistance from Greeneville firefighters, Lt. Dotson said.

Rescue efforts took more than 30 minutes to complete, police said.

After being freed from the wreckage of the truck, Dotson said, Ottinger was taken by a Greene County-Greeneville Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ambulance to Laughlin Memorial Hospital.

A hospital spokesman said Ottinger was treated and released from the hospital's emergency room on Thursday evening.

Emergency radio transmissions from the scene indicated that the DeBusk Volunteer Fire Department was summoned to divert traffic from Asheville Highway south of Greeneville and around the accident location.