The driver of a lorry which crashed on a major road in the US has been rescued from the cab as it was dangling from an overpass.
The drama unfolded on Sunday, when the vehicle, described by Sky’s US partner, NBC News, as a tractor-trailer, smashed into an overpass on I-65 in Louisville, Kentucky.
The cab, with the unnamed motorist in it, was left hanging precariously over the edge.
Pic: Louisville Metro Police Department/Facebook
Pic: Louisville Fire Department/Facebook
Pic: Louisville Fire Department/Facebook
In an emotional 18-minute 911 call published by the Louisville Police Department, the man said: “Can someone please help me. I’m about to fall down from the bridge. I’m just hanging on over the bridge. I don’t want to die.”
Operator Martyna Wohner tried to reassure him, saying “they’re going to get you out. You’re going to be okay”.
He replied: “Is it even possible? You don’t know.”
She said: “I know they can get you out. They’ve done it before.”
The driver asked: “If I don’t survive, can you just leave the recording to my family?”
The Louisville Fire Department stabilised the lorry with chains, before a firefighter was slowly lowered into the cab using a rope system connected to a fire engine ladder.
Pic: Louisville Fire Department/Facebook
Pic: Louisville Fire Department/Facebook
The firefighter secured the driver to a harness and the pair were slowly lifted out of the cab and on to the carriageway in an operation lasting over 30 minutes.
Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill described the operation as “fundamentally dangerous”.
He explained: “Once [the firefighter was] in there, he has to get that climb harness on to the victim and then tie him in, so that it can then hoist them out of there.”
Mr O’Neill said he has only witnessed this kind of operation once before in his 24-year career. Last March, the department made another big-rig rescue with a driver hanging over the Ohio River.
Remarkably, in both incidents, authorities say everyone made it out okay.
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Video shows that the driver in the latest incident, who has yet to be identified by officials, even gave a thumbs-up as he was lowered to the ground.
Mr O’Neill said he and his team “see people oftentimes on their worst day”.
“And so when you get to know that this person who had this … terrifying moment that has now gone to safety, gets to be reunited with his family, that’s exactly why we do the job.”
