Firefighters do all sorts of heroic things but rescuing people out of semi trucks isn’t the norm. That’s especially true when the truck is halfway over a bridge. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what the Louisville Division of Fire did when called upon on March 1st. Photos and video from the scene are dramatic enough to be right out of something only seen on the silver screen.
The incident occurred on the Clark Memorial Bridge (aka the 2nd Street Bridge) in Louisville, Kentucky a little before noon on Friday. It involved three cars aside from the semi but the driver of that truck was the main focus when authorities arrived on the scene. When they did, they found the truck dangling off of the bridge cab-first. Part of the trailer and eight of its 18 wheels were floating above the deck of the bridge. That didn’t stop rescuers from being downright heroic.
The cab was far below the deck and contained the driver. Firefighters worked for some 40 minutes to safely reach her. Once a rescue worker reached her, they used a “crane-like structure” and a safety harness to hoist her to safety. Three people in total went to the hospital as a result of the accident.
According to local news station WHAS11, the firefighter who saved the woman was Bryce Carden. “We’ve done some crazy things, but this tops it all,” Carden said during a news conference. “It all goes back to training. We’ve done this probably a hundred times. Once I reached her she was super calm and collected, and allowed us to do what we do. “In the moment, you don’t really think about it. Your training takes over. Everything slows down and you concentrate on what needs to be done.”
The woman is evidently a military veteran and according to Carden, prayed throughout the experience in an effort to stay calm. “She handled it like a champ,” said Fire Chief Brian O’Neil “As soon as she hit the ground, she let her emotions go. She’s a very brave woman. Here she is dangling over the edge. But think about having to hook her up and get her into the harness. If you have someone who panics, it can be dangerous. But she was a champ.”
Now that the driver is safe and sound, the city is in the process of determining just how bad the damage to the bridge is. “At this time, we would expect that it would still be able to carry commercial truck traffic in downtown Louisville. It is an important connection, but certainly, we will evaluate that,” James Ballinger, a highway engineer with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, said to WHAS11. For the time being, there’s no word on exactly how long the bridge will be closed. What’s certain though is that firefighters are heroes, even when there’s not a fire in sight.
Wow. So I’m assuming that trailer was unloaded? Or else the load would have gone through the nose of that reefer trailer. And that would have been not good, as the next stop would have been the day cab of that tractor.
Truly a professional and heroic response, the driver being ex military probably provided the calm in the face of danger. Congrats to all involved. But now….
1. Women drivers? Am I right?
2. Why not just pass a law that getting an accident is illegal. That should eliminate all accidents.
3. I am sure Trump/Biden was responsible.
4. Never would have happened with proper signage I hope she sues the government.
Username checks out.
Thank God the driver was able to fit through the side window!
I used to enjoy dangling from ropes, both professionally & for fun. But that looks dicey. Kudos to the department for their professionalism & training.
I’ve done some climbing and rigging myself. Short of equipment failure, the rope stuff doesn’t look especially dangerous. I really doubt they did this rescue without securing the truck, considering the #1 rule of EMS is to not get killed, since a dead person can’t save anyone. But hey this is Kentucky so maybe they were all git ‘er dun.
I was a high-rise window-cleaner as a yout. More recently, I’ve directed the guys flying rooftop HVAC units off & on—and rigged removal of a fair few wall-mount units. A multi-ton semi is way above my level of competence, which is why I praised the department for their training. I damn sure wouldn’t have been comfortable dangling there these days 😉
edit to add: one of the things I really enjoyed about being a Jinney man was that, short of actually cutting your rope, there wasn’t much anyone could do to mess with you up there. Some great views, too!
I believe it is Yute? Excellent My Cousin Vinny reference. But no way Pesci gets Marisa Tomei if she didn’t have that ungodly accent. Truly that is why New Yorkers only marry other New Yorkers.
Oh I just meant the dude in the harness. I have no fucking clue how to stabilize that truck.
I don’t really see anything securing the truck/trailer, surprisingly. My assumption was that they were concerned about any attempts destabilizing it and causing the tractor or even just the cab to fall.
That was an incredible rescue! Good job by the driver staying calm during the rescue! I can only imagine how terrifying that would have been.
I’m surprised the fifth wheel coupling held out. It’s not exactly designed to handle stress in that particular direction.
As a truck driver in the PNW this sort of scenario flashes to mind every time I cross a bridge.
Be it Deception Pass that I haul over every Monday or the Tacoma Narrows I haul over every Tuesday.
I wonder how this happened?
Probably got cut off by an inattentive/aggressive driver.
My motto in that case is ‘I’m not gonna try and veer around you, I’m going straight through you.’
But.. your animal reflexes have their own mind, despite what you tell yourself.
Scary stuff. Glad everyone came out of it alright.
Please, everyone, give tractor trailers the respect they deserve out there on the road.
If this was me driving the firefighters would be there to extricate your limp fragile body from the twisted metal tomb you put yourself in, with the jaws of life.
Speaking of the coupling – I’m surprised at the one hood hinge still hanging on like that. The plastic doesn’t weigh much, but that’s probably still more than it’s designed for in that position
I was pretty amazed the rescuers hadn’t lashed the back of that trailer when they performed the rescue, but it looks like it was semi-wedged (groan) against the bridge structure. Even still, I would have done something to secure it, lest it fell and took the firefighter with it.
I assume the truck was full of cargo judging by the damage to the pedestrian walkway.
Thank Allah diesel doesn’t easily support a flame. It looks like the fuel tank was seriously damaged.
Should we start a Go Fund Me for the driver’s undergarment needs?
Given the time of day this occured, the truck was likely empty or nearly empty. These trucks start super early in the morning making food service deliveries to restaurants and hotels and such. Most are nearly empty around noon.
Then remind me not to stroll across that bridge next time I’m in Louisville. Scary!
I was surprised by that as well. That said, they got the job done!
This is very reminiscent of the Malad River Gorge incident that happened a couple years ago. A couple towing their camper trailer managed to jump the guardrail while crossing a very narrow and extremely deep gorge, and the pickup dangled from the safety chains STRIGHT DOWN into the gorge for several hours before they could be rescued.
I was joking about it while towing a trailer across the gorge yesterday. “Good thing we hooked up the safety chains!”
We’re they able to save the truck?
You just know some manager at Swift caught a small part of the story on the radio and was extremely relieved to see the Sysco logo when he pulled it up on his phone
I’m glad the driver was safely rescued.
Now that that’s out of the way.. “Paw patrol! Paw patrol! Be there on the doubllle!”
Has anyone found any video of the truck recovery? I’d love to see how they got it back up on the bridge.
Also, in the wake of this accident, I’ve seen people calling for a ban on semi trucks both on the bridge and in downtown. What people need to understand is that this is *not* an over-the-road, long distance truck. Sysco handles local food service delivery to restaurants, hotels, and the like. Banning these trucks would hurt the businesses downtown, making it harder and more expensive to get their supplies.
Similarly, there was discussion about the state of the toll bridges in the area, and if the driver or their company was using this bring to avoid the toll bridges. Again, understanding the mission of a food distribution truck should make it evident that this driver would have been on surface streets to make their deliveries- not trying to ‘avoid’ tolls.
One of the local TV stations had truck recovery footage on a late afternoon newscast. Looks like at least two heavy rotator tow trucks were used, and it appeared to be going well.
I’ll have to look that up. I love the heavy wreckers and seeing them work. I saw a class 6 hauling a UPS truck with a double trailer earlier today and was delighted.
The tow truck was probably my favorite Matchbox car of all.
Have you seen Heavy Rescue:401?
It’s a good show
This will be the highlight of 2024 for those firefighters. They got to play with all their toys!
This happened less than ten minutes from where I live. That bridge is popular because it’s one of two in Louisville that doesn’t have tolls on it, and it ends right on Main Street in downtown Louisville. The lanes are super narrow and I’ve always been concerned something like this would happen with a large vehicle. A semi truck literally fills the whole lane with maybe a foot to spare on either side, and there’s two lanes going both ways with no median or divider. So glad they were able to get the driver out safely! They got the truck back up on the bridge yesterday evening.
Also, that bridge is a most horrible shade of yellow and I have no idea who thought that was a good color. Everyone here hates it.
I’m from Louisville too, and boy-howdy could this town use some of this kind of good news and good press.
But I can say honestly that not everybody hates that yellow. That guy Doug loves it. But everybody does hate Doug.
Friggin’ Doug.
Friggin’ DOUG!!
No dead body is…good.
Now who’s going to save the truck?!
-Michael Falk, The Onion.
For real though, damn fine job by those FRs.
Looking at that video I wonder what the best options would have been had the FRs not been there:
Try to make it to the railing a few feet away and hope the few lbs of driver weight shifting around doesn’t’ unbalance the truck to fall in the process.Drop into the water hoping to get out of the way before the truck came crashing down on top.Stay in the truck and pray the crash protection of the truck would be enough to keep the cabin from being crushed and to be able to stay conscious to get out.
Overall option 1 is the safest, especially given that water had got to be freezing cold and who knows how fast the current is.
Seriously. These folks get up every morning prepared to die to save other peoples’ lives. The word heroic doesn’t come half the way to describing them and their contributions to our well-being. Any one of us may need them at any time. Thank God they’re there.
Firefighters picking up Spider-Man’s slack once again. Way to go!
This exact scenario has been used in at least a dozen different superhero movies. In the next movie that uses the truck/bus dangling off the bridge scene by the time Spandexman shows up to save the day they should find the fire dept already on the scene and handling it.
Damn that could be a good movie. Almost like the middle act of The Incredibles.
Or a superhero movie spoof. Almost there man. Every time he shows up he is late.
I’d watch that movie, especially one where it keeps happening. Every time the superhero shows up, it’s already handled.
Bank robbery? Don’t worry, bad guys getting arrested by the time hero gets there.
Damsel in distress off the building? Fire dept is on the scene.
Or how about an invasion of an alien horde where our superhero’s hand-to-hand combat (shield, bow-and-arrow, or whatever) is just in the way, and the proper military saves the day using proper military tactics and proper automatic weapons with artillery and air support?
There was an SNL sketch years ago about a team of Amish crimefighters that traveled by buggy and showed up a couple of days later.
Spoon!