Tennessee man recalls being buried alive for almost 16 hours

MAURY COUNTY, Tenn. ( WKRN ) — David Golden remembers the day in great detail.

It was around 11 a.m. in mid-March when the 54-year-old father of six and grandfather of two was working in a pit in Hampshire, a community about 60 miles southwest of Nashville. He was loading up some chert rock for a friend, the construction worker explained to NewsNation affiliate WKRN.

David said he was close to the wall of the pit when, all of a sudden, the dirt came crashing down on him and his backhoe, breaking the seat off the floorboard of the machine.

That’s when the darkness set in.

Golden became immobilized from the neck down with only a small space around his face. He couldn’t see, he could barely move, but he was still able to breathe.

David said he had no idea how much dirt was on top of him as he tried to dig his way out with his right arm. However, every time he moved some dirt, more fell into his face, causing him to fear that he would be smothered.

The roof of the backhoe had been smashed but was still protecting him from being completely crushed, David recounted to WKRN. With no idea how long he would be stuck, David said he began to pray.

He described himself as a religious man who had not been reading his Bible and praying as much as he could have, but in that moment, he believed God was communicating with him, urging him to get back on the path.

“I said, ‘You’re going to die right here today,’ so I started praying,” David recalled.

About 12 hours later, Melody — David’s wife of 33 years — came to the pit, finding the dump truck David had been using was still running. She hadn’t heard from him all day.

Once she noticed the collapse that had buried her husband, Melody feared the worst.

Meanwhile, David remained buried under the dirt. He could still hear his dump truck running, and when it suddenly shut off, he believed it had finally run out of fuel.

Above him, it was Melody and her brother who had moved and shut off the truck. Melody’s brother then jumped into the chert pit, combing through the dirt to search for any signs of life.

He was able to find a small metal piece of the backhoe protruding from the dirt.

“If it wasn’t for my little brother, they would not know where to dig,” Melody told WKRN.

“I heard him holler. He said, ‘He’s right here. He’s alive,'” David remembered.

David’s wife and brother-in-law called 911 and told an army of first responders exactly where to start digging. By then, David had been buried alive for roughly half the day.

Multiple agencies from Maury County were called in to find David.

The moment he saw the first flashlight and another human face, David said he knew he was saved.

“I knew right then that I was God’s child,” he told WKRN, explaining that he continued praying for forgiveness for his sin as more rescue teams arrived.

Crews said they started digging with their hands and shovels and formed a “bucket brigade” to remove the dirt from the immediate area. After more than three hours, a skid steer and another backhoe joined the effort to move larger amounts of dirt, allowing the buried backhoe to be revealed. At that point, personnel decided to cut the roof off the buried backhoe to reach the trapped man.

Then, nearly 16 hours after first becoming trapped, David was free.

Video from that night shows David in a stokes basket as a human chain passed him down the hill to a waiting ambulance, which took him to a Vanderbilt University Medical Center LifeFlight helicopter.

“I prayed three times for the good Lord to take me home because I was in so much pain,” David said. “I had the feeling come over me that someone was coming, that someone would be there.”

David didn’t sustain any broken bones or internal injuries, but because of the immense pressure his lower body experienced for hours upon hours, he is currently wearing a brace and still has a lot of numbness in his legs.

The Goldens want every person who helped save David’s life to know how thankful they are.

“The good Lord was with me, and I was ready to go,” David explained. “When you think you’re going to die and you have peace and the presence of God with you…I told them when I come out, I said I’d do it again for that feeling.”

David told WKRN he will start driving his dump truck again as soon as he is able to do so. He is also excited to get behind the controls of another backhoe and even dig in the chert pit.

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