Twin brothers were tragically killed on their way to Washington DC when their truck collided with another vehicle and plunged into the icy Potomac River.
DC Fire and Emergency Services received a call just before 7 p.m. on January 16 reporting an accident that left one car in the river.
It is unclear what caused the collision, but the driver of the other car was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
DC Fire/EMS and Park Police responded to the incident with several units and divers. A diver pulled Jerel Wert from the water while he was working from a DC Metropolitan Police Air Boat, a DC Fire and EMS Public Information Officer confirmed.
He was pronounced dead after being transported to a nearby hospital.
Jerel's brother, Jerod, who was driving the vehicle, was not found until the next day when authorities recovered the vehicle from the water.
Footage from a dashboard camera showed the shocking moment the truck veered off the bridge.
The brothers were driving a white pickup. The video shows the car traveling down the road when it appeared to crash into the back of a second vehicle.
Jerel (left) and Jerod Wert (right) died in the fatal car crash on the Arlington Memorial Bridge
The car was pulled from the Potomac River 19 hours after the crash
DC Fire/EMS and Park Police responded to the incident and initiated a rescue mission
The truck then lost control and made a sharp turn into oncoming traffic. The other cars on the road swerved, but the truck crashed into the bridge barrier and plunged into the river.
Witnesses quickly stopped and crowded around the damaged bridge to see what was happening.
Nigisti Adane, the witness who shot the video, told WTTG, a local Fox affiliate, that the truck sank quickly after it fell from the bridge.
“The truck went straight down. It looked like it was going straight down,” she explained. Adane told WTTG she called authorities at 6:48 p.m. and they arrived 15 minutes later.
The frigid temperatures made matters worse. Weather data indicates Potomac River temperatures are as low as 70 degrees, while DC reached temperatures as high as 70 degrees on January 16.
DC Fire and EMS Department shared images of first responders setting up camp at the bottom of the river to begin the rescue mission.
Emergency services were buffeted by snow as they set up a pulley system to lift the truck out of the river.
Jerel and Jerod's sister, Nikki Windsor, told WTTG that Jerel worked as a carpenter and that Jerod was an HVAC technician.
'They were very hard workers, especially Jerod. That was his hobby: work, work, work. He loved to work,” she told the local newspaper.
Nikki added that Jerel was a musician who loved guitars and that Jerod was a father. She said the two were very close and just celebrated a birthday on December 11.
Jerel and Jerod were twin brothers and were driving to DC when they were killed in a car accident
Jerel and Jerod's sister, Nikki, said the men were hard workers and had a close bond
Questions remain about how the truck went off the bridge, but Nikki believes they ended up on black ice due to the harsh weather.
The twins were from Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, and were traveling together when they were killed.
“Jerod and Jerel were beloved members of the Chesapeake Beach community, always ready to provide support and kindness to those around them,” their obituary reads.
“Their shared positivity and close relationship had a profound impact on everyone who knew them, making their loss even more heartbreaking.”
City officials installed fences and barriers to block the hole in the bridge. David Lattanzi, a former bridge instructor, told local ABC affiliate WJLA News that it was surprising that a truck that size could break through the barrier.
Rescuers had to pull the truck out of the river after the crash
“If it was a tractor-trailer or a semi-trailer, it makes sense. That's a gigantic truck. But this looks like it's a light task, so it's a bad combination of the worst-case scenario where a truck comes in and does this,” he told the outlet.
The bridge was forced to close after the collision and officials pulled the truck out 19 hours after it entered the river.
Chris Ziemba, who was in town for Inauguration Day, told WJLA that the hole in the bridge was a sad reminder of what happened the week before. “This is terrible, scary and sad,” he told the newspaper.
Dailymail.com reached out to Park Police and DC Fire/EMS for comment but did not immediately hear back.
