By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

A Livermore Falls truck driver was recovering Thursday in a Boston hospital after cheating death by dropping nearly 100 feet into a river to escape his burning rig.

Police said Edward H. White, 37, was able to swim to a small island Wednesday night after catching fire and dropping from a bridge on Interstate 495 near the Haverhill-Methuen line in Massachusetts.

White was listed in serious condition Thursday at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where he was being treated for burns and other injuries.

“That cold water must have woke him right up,” Michael J. Vets, who operated the boat sent out to rescue White, said Thursday. “He was standing up when we got there. He was talking to the paramedics, but he was burned pretty bad.”

Investigators said White was forced to jump from the bridge at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday after the front end of his tractor-trailer came to rest hanging over the side. The truck burst into flames and caught White’s shirt on fire, forcing him to jump into the river before rescue crews arrived.

Lt. Glenn Gallant of the Methuen Fire Department told the Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence, Mass., that White “didn’t have any other way to put out the flames, so he jumped from the cab into the river. If he wasn’t over the water, he’d be dead.”

After White made his way to the island, he was rescued by crews from the local harbormaster, who responded with a boat to retrieve him, police said. White was rescued, shoeless and shirtless, a half-hour after jumping into the river, witnesses told police.

One of the rescuers told police Edwards had burns on his face, hair, stomach and chest when he was picked up from the island 100 yards downstream from where he jumped.

The truck, owned by Lily Transportation Corp. of Needham, Mass., was returning from making a delivery for the Poland Spring Bottling Co. in Maine. According to the company Web site, Lily has offices throughout New England, including in Auburn, Scarborough and Eliot. White is one of more than 450 drivers employed by the company.

Massachusetts State Police Trooper Richard Poirier said White’s rig collided with a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse while both drivers were headed north on I-495.

In a news release, Poirier said the Eclipse, driven by Bruno M. Pignata, 20, of Framingham, Mass., was in the the left travel lane when it struck White’s truck as he drove in the middle lane.

Pignata was not hurt in the wreck. He told police he feared the tractor-trailer would explode after it caught fire. White was first taken to a Methuen hospital before he was flown to Brigham and Women’s in Boston.

The story about the crash and White’s ordeal was big news in Massachusetts on Thursday. Vets, the harbormaster boat operator, said he had been contacted by a half-dozen television news stations and a like number of print reporters. He agreed the accident was dramatic but downplayed his own role in the rescue.

“It was something to see the truck dangling over the bridge like that,” Vets said. “It was a spectacular crash, but it wasn’t a spectacular rescue.”

The crash and the ensuing mayhem closed down a long stretch of I-495 and brought out a slew of emergency and environmental teams. It was initially feared that one of the truck’s diesel tanks had fallen into the Merrimack River.

All northbound lanes were closed until about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday. Parts of the three-lane highway were not open until 6 a.m. Thursday.

White is not listed in the Livermore Falls telephone book. It was unclear Thursday night if he has been living there or if he has family in the area.