Semi dangling from bridge over Ohio River leads to dramatic rescue in Louisville

A tractor-trailer driver was rescued from the cab of the vehicle after a collision left it dangling from a bridge above the Ohio River in Louisville Friday.

The four-vehicle crash, which the Louisville Metro Police Department said happened at about noon on the Clark Memorial Bridge, shut down a major artery connecting Louisville to the Indiana side of the river.

The semi truck driver was taken to University of Louisville Hospital after what police described as a “dramatic rescue” by Louisville Fire and Rescue. Her injuries were not thought to be life-threatening, police said.

Two people in one of the other vehicles involved sustained serious and possibly life-threatening injuries in the collision, which happened about noon, Louisville police said in a news release. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said Saturday that one of them remains at the UofL Hospital with serious injuries.

The bridge, originally built in 1929 and reconstructed in 1958, carries both motor vehicle and pedestrian traffic.

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The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said in a news release Saturday afternoon that three lanes of the Second Street Bridge, which carries an average of 24,000 vehicles a day between Kentucky and Jeffersonville, Ind., would reopen by 6 p.m.

The cabinet said engineers had performed a “thorough assessment” and found that “the bridge is safe for vehicle travel, and the damages found do not affect the bridge’s structural integrity.”

The cabinet said one southbound lane and both northbound lanes would be reopening Saturday.

The sidewalks on the bridge sustained most of the damage, the cabinet said, and will remain closed to pedestrian traffic until repairs can be completed. The timeline for that will depend on when steel needed to support the sidewalk and railing can be obtained, the cabinet said.

“Engineers will also continue to examine improvement opportunities as part of the after-action review,” the release stated.

“Our goal is to start work as soon as possible and lots will be happening behind the scenes to develop repair plans and designs, as well as traffic management plans once work starts,” State Highway Engineer James Ballinger said in the release. “This is not expected to be a long-term closure and we will update the public on the timeline as we have more details.”

The tractor-trailer was removed from the bridge at 7:53 p.m. Friday, according to an earlier social media post by the cabinet.

Engineers were using drones to inspect the sidewalk and railing Friday afternoon, but a physical inspection was also necessary “to assess conditions above and below the bridge,” the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said in a news release.

The cabinet said it will use a contract already in place with a contractor who recently repaired another part of the bridge “to expedite any repairs.”

Ballinger said Saturday that crashes like the one Friday are “extremely rare and unusual.”

He said fewer than 20 similar crashes have happened on the bridge in the last five years. An estimated 40 million vehicles have crossed the Second Street Bridge during that time frame, he said.

Police said the wreck involved the semi, two passenger vehicles and a pickup truck.

Greenberg said in his update Saturday that a preliminary police investigation indicates that, according to witnesses, the crash happened when a southbound vehicle hit another vehicle that was stalled in the right lane. That caused the driver to lose control and cross into the northbound lane, where it hit the semi, causing it to go through the guardrail and off the edge of the bridge.

Greenberg said that because there are no cameras on the bridge, video of the collision is not available.

The Louisville Fire Department arrived at the scene of the collision within three minutes, and “within 40 minutes of the accident taking place, the Louisville Division of Fire began, conducted and concluded an absolutely heroic rescue,” Greenberg said at a news conference Friday.

Officials said firefighter Bryce Carden, 29, who has been with the fire department six years, was lowered from a ladder truck to the driver’s side of the hanging semi, where he cut the seat belt off the stranded driver, strapped her into a rescue harness and helped her to safety.

Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill said at the news conference that the driver of the semi is a military veteran and was “cool as a cucumber” throughout the rescue.

“She was amazing and so brave through the entire thing,” he said.

Gov. Andy Beshear expressed his gratitude for the first responders Friday afternoon.

“The brave fire fighters and first responders today in Louisville are an amazing example of how everyday heroes put their lives at risk to help others when they need it most,” Beshear said in a post on the social media platform X. “We are incredibly grateful for their service to their community and to the commonwealth.”