Tractor-Trailer Driver Rescued from Suspended Cab

For nearly an hour, a tractor-trailer driver found herself stuck in the cab of her vehicle, which was precariously hanging over the Ohio River from the side of a bridge in Kentucky following a multi-vehicle accident last Friday.

Emergency responders on the bridge provided instructions to the trapped driver. Crews quickly established a rope system and lowered firefighter Bryce Carden from Louisville, Kentucky, to facilitate the rescue.

“Thank God,” the driver exclaimed when Mr. Carden reached her cab, a moment he recounted during a news conference on Friday.

Initially, Mr. Carden faced challenges in unfastening the driver’s seatbelt. “We were given a free pocketknife during our trainings, and I had that pocketknife on me, so I was able to cut her out of her seatbelt,” he said in a phone interview on Saturday. “After that, I managed to assist her with the rest of the harness.”

With both Mr. Carden and the driver securely attached to one another, they ascended approximately 100 feet to safety on the bridge, a process that took around five minutes.

“I kept reassuring her by saying, ‘I have you, I have you,’” Mr. Carden mentioned on Saturday. “She was filled with gratitude, thanking God, and I told her, ‘Let’s just keep praying together.’”