LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Newly released 911 calls reveal shock and panic from witnesses as a semitruck dangled over the Ohio River with the driver inside last week.
It happened early Friday afternoon after a crash on the Second Street Bridge between the semi, a pickup truck and two passenger vehicles. The crash caused the semitruck to break through the western barrier of the bridge and partially hang over the Ohio River with the driver stuck inside the cab.
Operators began fielding a flurry of 911 calls about the crash. Tuesday, the city released audio from 13 calls made right after it happened. None of the calls came from the driver inside the truck cab.
"There is a wreck on the Second Street Bridge. It's a semitruck that flipped over the bridge, the lady is screaming, like it's very, very bad," one caller said.
When the 911 operator asks the caller if the semitruck is flipped over and hanging off the bridge, the caller said "yes, it's literally hanging off the bridge."
The driver of the big rig was trapped in the cab for nearly 45 minutes before being rescued by members of the Louisville Fire Department.
One caller said "two trucks just got into an accident and a semi tractor-trailer is hanging over the bridge, like we need people right now."
When a 911 operator asked one caller if the driver was out of the truck, they responded "No, she cannot get out of the truck. She's over the bridge. This cab is hanging over the river."
Video of the harrowing rescue of the driver has gone viral on the internet since Friday afternoon. The driver, a Louisville woman, was stuck in the cab for at least 45 minutes. She was taken to the hospital to be checked and was released shortly after.
Louisville fireman, Bryce Carden, was the driver's rescuer. He swung down and pulled the driver to safety.
Some of the 911 calls came from Sysco, the driver's employer.
"I work for Sysco, I got an alert that one of my drivers ran their truck off the bridge," the employee can be heard telling the operator.
The driver of the big rig was trapped in the cab for nearly 45 minutes before being rescued by members of the Louisville Fire Department.
The far right southbound lane of the bridge remains closed. The left southbound lane and both northbound lanes of the bridge are open. But both sidewalks will remain closed to pedestrians until repairs have been completed. Traffic control devices were also placed in the closed lane of the bridge to allow for the other lanes to reopen.
KYTC said it has met with steel fabricators and a contractor to start on a plan to repair the bridge's sidewalk and railing. Securing everything at the crash site will determine when construction can start.
Two occupants of the passenger vehicles involved in the crash were taken to a local hospital with what LMPD calls "serious" and "life-threatening" injuries. As of Saturday evening, one person remained in the hospital, though their condition was not known. Everyone else involved had been released.
While there are no cameras on the bridge, officials said it was a chain-reaction crash and the semitruck did not cause the initial impact. The investigation into the crash remains ongoing, and no charges have been filed.
Related Stories:
- Louisville firefighter describes moment he pulled woman from semi dangling off 2nd Street Bridge
- 2nd Street Bridge partially reopens Saturday after 4-vehicle crash
- Engineers assess damage on 2nd Street Bridge in Louisville after semitruck crash
- Rescue crews pull driver from semitruck hanging over Ohio River after collision on the 2nd Street Bridge
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