Crash leads to dramatic rescue of semi truck driver dangling off bridge

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A truck driver was rescued after a crash left his semi hanging over the side of a bridge on I-65 in Louisville, Kentucky.

“I’m just hanging over the bridge, I don’t want to die,” the truck driver told a 911 dispatcher.

The driver called 911 while being trapped in the cab. He stayed on the line for 18 harrowing minutes.

“Will you guys please help me, I’m about to… I’m about to fall down from the bridge,” the driver said. “I’m really afraid to move in the truck right now.”

At one point, he makes a special request.

“Please, if I don’t survive, can you just leave the recording for my family?” he asks.

While he was on the phone, responders were rushing to set up a rescue plan.

“If you can imagine when you’re on an interstate, it’s a highly, highly dangerous position to set up any type of operation,” said Chief Brian O’Neill, with the Louisville Fire Dept.

Crews used a rope system to lower a rescuer into the cab. The rescuer then hooked up the driver and lifted him to safety — all in a matter of about 30 minutes.

A remarkably similar scene played out just last year in Louisville when dozens of firefighters worked for nearly an hour to rescue the driver of a truck that was dangling off a different bridge.

As for this recent crash, police are investigating how the driver lost control.

Crews rescue two people from truck dangling over Idaho bridge

This article is more than 4 years old

Safety chains attaching pickup truck to camper trailer prevented it from falling

Associated PressWed 17 Mar 2021 01.20 GMTShare

Authorities say a set of camper trailer safety chains and quick, careful work by emergency crews saved two people after their pickup truck plunged off a bridge, leaving them dangling above a deep gorge in southern Idaho.

Idaho state police responded to the accident at about 2.45pm on Monday, said Lynn Hightower, a police spokesperson. A trooper found a man and a woman inside the pickup truck that was dangling, nose-down, off the side of the bridge spanning the Malad Gorge.

The gorge is narrow but is roughly 100ft (30.48m) deep below the bridge, roughly the height of a 10-story building. The gorge reaches about 250ft (76.20m) deep at its deepest point.

The only thing keeping the 2004 Ford F-350 pickup from falling was the set of “safety chains” attaching the 30ft camper trailer, which remained on the bridge, to the pickup. A state trooper and local sheriff’s deputy first used an additional set of chains from a nearby semi truck to help support the dangling pickup truck, holding it in place until additional rescuers with cranes, rope rescue gear and other equipment could arrive.

Emergency crews were then able to rappel down to the hanging truck and attach a harness to each occupant, allowing them to be safely carried back to the bridge. Both were taken to hospitals, and neither appeared to have life-threatening injuries, Hightower said. Two small dogs inside the pickup were also safely rescued and taken to the home of a nearby family member.

Workers were still attempting to pull the pickup from the precipice on Monday evening.

“It was terrifying,” Hightower said. “It was definitely a heroic rescue from everybody that was out there, and thankfully, they’re all fine.”

Witnesses said the truck appeared to lose control before the crash, first swerving to hit the right shoulder barrier before sliding over the left-side guardrail. The truck then tipped over the bridge, with the camper blocking both lanes of the bridge.

The case remains under investigation, Hightower said. Agencies from Gooding, Jerome and Twin Falls responded to the incident, along with regional sheriff’s offices and fire department and paramedic services.

“A rescue like this takes a lot of quick thinking and action but this is what they train for,” she said. “That training just paid off today, and two people are alive because of the hours and hours of training that these emergency responders do.”

Truck driver rescued after dangling 100 feet in the air off West Virginia highway

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Kieran Sullivan, Raymond Sanchez, FOX Weather

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A truck driver was heroically rescued from certain death after a commercial cargo truck veered off a snow-covered highway in West Virginia, leaving the semi-truck cab dangling off a bridge nearly 100-feet above the ground.

At roughly 6:25 a.m., first responders from Hurricane Fire Department were dispatched to a snow-covered US Route 35 in Mason County for a motor vehicle collision – and it wasn’t an average crash.

At the scene, the cab of a large tractor trailer was dangling off a bridge, with the driver inside staring a deadly drop to the ground directly in the eyes.

A coalition of local first responders assembled on US Route 35, where bystanders gathered and captured video and photographs of the truck that hung off the interstate bridge by the weight of its cargo. 

On scene, a team of local and county first responders closed the highway and began a rescue operation using a number of fire engines and emergency management vehicles to prepare to rescue the driver from the doomed truck. 

According to local first responders, technicians from several responding departments implemented three rope systems using two heavy “wrecker” trucks, operating one as an anchor to the bridge and the other to secure the dangling truck to prevent it from plummeting to the ground below.

First responders strategically positioned emergency vehicles to allow for a challenging rope rescue, and heroically lowered down a first responder to rescue the at-risk truck driver.

Hurricane Fire Department volunteer firefighter Westley Quinn was propelled off of the bridge and into the truck cab, where he secured the driver using a harness.

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After roughly five hours dangling from the highway bridge, the driver was hoisted back up to safety unharmed. 

According to Mason County Commission President Rick Handley, responding local fire departments that heroically assisted in saving the life of the truck driver included Hurricane, Point Pleasant, Winfield, Buffalo, St. Albans, Nitro and Teays Valley.