A local man is in critical condition tonight after his truck veered off the highway and down a 50 foot embankment. Police say the 43-year-old driver was headed north around 11:30 a.m., Sunday on I-35 in Georgetown when he started swerving wildly.

“Witnesses saw that he was driving erratically, and we had a number of calls to 911, and he went into the median,” said Georgetown PIO, Keith Hutchinson.

On the stretch of I-35 where the accident happened, there are only concrete barriers on the south-bound lanes. North-bound lanes are blocked only by a small guardrail.

“You see it from I-35, you figure one day it's going to happen,” said the owner of Cen-Tex Towing, Les Sybert.

Officials say the guardrails were strong enough to stop the van from veering off the highway and into the grassy median. The van continued down the grassy patch of land and went off an embankment near the San Gabriel River. Officials say it landed at the bottom front end first, flipped several times and then stopped on its side.

The van was crushed so badly that fire crews had to cut off the back door to pull the driver out. He was flown to University Medical Center at Brackenridge Hospital in critical condition.

Similar accidents have happened before on that particular stretch of I-35, but experts say it's still uncommon.

“It's very unusual for one to come crashing all the way to bottom,” said Sybert.

Drivers say something needs to be done.

“I'm on the highway every day, I never thought about it. But now that this happens, I guess the more it happens, the more whoever’s in charge will think of something to add there,” said Austin driver Lucian Nastase.

Officials did not immediately know why the driver was veering back and forth across the highway but a medical condition could be to blame. Police are withholding the victim’s name.