‘I Have You’: Firefighter rescues driver from truck dangling from bridge

For nearly an hour, the driver of a tractor-trailer was trapped in his cab as it dangled from the side of a bridge in Kentucky high above the Ohio River after a multi-vehicle crash on Friday.

From the bridge, emergency services shouted directions to the driver. Emergency crews set up a rope system and lowered a Louisville, Kentucky, firefighter, Bryce Carden, to rescue her.

“Thank God,” the driver said as Mr. Carden retaliated with the truck’s cab, he recalled at a news conference Friday.

Initially, Mr. Carden said, he had difficulty getting the driver to unbuckle her seat belt.

“During our training we were given a free pocket knife, and I had that pocket knife with me, so I was able to cut her out of her seat belt,” he said in a telephone interview Saturday. “I was able to get her out and put the rest of the harness on.”

The driver and Mr. Carden, who were now attached to each other, were about 100 feet above the river when they were lifted to the bridge, a process that took about five minutes.

“I kept telling her, ‘I got you, I got you,’” Mr. Carden said on Saturday. “She just thanked God, and then I told her, ‘Let’s just keep praying together.’”

Unbeknownst to Mr. Carden and the driver, news crews had gathered and captured drones compelling images of the rescuepart of which was broadcast live.

“I had no idea how many people were watching,” he said. “I was focused on the task at hand.”

He said the driver, who was not publicly identified, remained calm during the rescue until she arrived back at the top of the bridge, the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge, which connects Louisville, Kentucky, with southern Indiana.

“I think all the emotions came over her, and it hit her that she could possibly have died,” he said.

Mr Carden said he had practiced the rope rescue technique so often that it had become “second nature”, but Friday was the first time he had used it in an emergency.

At a news conference on Friday, Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill called the rescue a “once-in-a-career type thing.”

He said rescuers faced a precarious and unpredictable situation as the tractor-trailer was “basically stuck on the concrete, as well as on one of the abutments holding it in place.”

“We were very concerned about the stabilization there to make sure our people are safe,” he said. “We’re willing to risk a lot to save a lot, so yes, we’re willing to take that risk to get her out, but it was a constant concern that the truck could shift at any moment.”

Chief O’Neill described Mr. Carden as one of the “nicest, happiest guys” and exactly the person who led the high-stakes rescue effort.

“He’s exactly the right person to put there to keep that patient calm, cool and collected and to understand that she’s in safe hands so she doesn’t panic,” Chief O’Neill said.

The driver was taken to a hospital and treated for injuries that were not life-threatening Louisville Metro Police said.

The tractor-trailer pierced the guardrail around noon after a crash involving three other vehicles, police said. Two other patients, who were not identified, were also taken to a hospital for injuries that were serious and possibly life-threatening, officials said.

The truck was removed from the bridge on Friday evening. The bridge was expected to be partially reopened on Saturday evening. State transportation officials said on social media.

For Mr. Carden, it was a long night after the rescue as he answered phone calls, returned to normal life at the firehouse, responded to text messages from loved ones and conducted interviews with news media.

“We went straight back to work,” he says. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to my wife until three hours later.”