Driver on the Clark Memorial Bridge describes semi truck crash

a rescue maneuver along the Second Street Bridge like something you'd see at the Thunder Air Show but this is real life semi hanging over the edge of the bridge C over the water gra I get out of the cabin a crashed semi the driver preing and clutching anything she can grab in the truck cab dangling hundreds of feet above the Ohio River while a Louisville fireworker is lowered down to buckle her into a life-saving harness they pause to pray some more together then she is slowly lifted up onto the

Second Street bridge for a second chance at life she held it together like a champ but I will say the second she hit Solid Ground she was able to let those emotions go but they're calling a once in a-lifetime rescue gets a round of applause and the Amazing Story is getting around the country [Music] tonight this is wave news at 11 welcome to wave news at 11 I'm John B we are learning new details tonight about the Dr dramatic Rescue of a semi- driver left dangling above the Ohio River following

a crash while crossing the Second Street Bridge tonight we're hearing from a driver on that bridge who witnessed the whole thing wave news reporter Noel frel joins us live near the bridge which is still close tonight yeah John this is the scene at the bridge right now that semi- TR has been towed away and we're not seeing any Crews here at the moment but the bridge remains closed as the Kentucky transportation cabinet continues to assess the damages talked with one driver who was on that bridge

today who tells me he witnessed the entire crash he tells me he stayed with the driver of that semi TR until emergency responders arrived semi hanging over the edge of the bridge cab hanging over the water gra I would get out of the cab through three other people's involved the dramatic Rescue of a semi-truck driver caught on our cameras Friday afternoon the cab of the Cisco truck dangled over the edge of the Second Street Bridge a female driver trapped inside died just feet from plunging into t

he Ohio River it's in tremendously lucky that it didn't go over Cruz used a ladder to lower firefighter Bryce Carden to the driver's side of the rig Carden gets the woman into a harness telling her how she needs to secure herself so he can complete the rescue once the driver was secured Crews pulled them both back to Solid Ground Louisville fire completed the entire rescue within 40 minutes of arriving on scene thank God that's what she kept saying thank God and I I told her I said just take a d

eep breath and then here's what I need you to do cuz I needed her to assist in you know moving certain ways to be able to get the horness on right and once we did that we got her free of the seat belt and uh she was on my system so I knew that we were good from there we just needed to bring her on up Cen who has been with the department for six years specializes in high angle rescues uh I was not nervous at all going over the edge cuz I knew that they had me on the top side uh once I reached her

she was super calm uh collected and helped me do what I needed to do to get her safety essentially one of the drivers on the bridge when the crash happened was Phil Galler he says it all started when a pickup truck was swerving through traffic and then he passes the Mustang that was in front of us and by the time he passes him the traffic was stopped in front of us and he smashed right into them people and I was like I was I see all that but then his car his truck went head on into the semi tha

t's when he says the semi lost control and went through the rail Galler hopped out of his car and yelled down to the driver he stayed with her until emergency crews cleared the seed constantly asking you know how much longer how much of my trailer is holding is hanging off the bridge and didn't really want to tell her but I told her the truth I mean she I was like it's about it's over halfway you're hanging over half your trailers hanging halfway off I said do you have a full load on she's like

yes and I was just trying to tell her be calm everybody you know everybody's on their way the crash involved four vehicles in total two people involved in the crash were taken to uvl hospital with life-threatening injuries the semi- driver wasn't seriously hurt but was taken to the hospital as a precaution Phil says he feels lucky to have walked away unharmed I hated leaving her after talking to her like that and it's hard not to get choked up in there thinking about her land sitting down there

but and Phil tells me that he watched the rescue later on TV and he described it as incredible again the bridge will stay closed until the Kentucky transportation cabinet can assess all of the damages and determine what repairs are needed reporting live Noel Frio wave news thanks to well