LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The dramatic rescue by the Louisville Fire Department (LFD) on Friday required quick action. The LFD said their regular practice helped.
Firefighters worked to save a trapped woman from a semitruck hanging off the side of the Second Street Bridge also known as the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge.
Firefighters said they performed what’s called a “pickoff rescue.”
“So we’re going to put somebody on a rappelling-type rope with a safety rope with them, and they’re going to rappel down to wherever the victim’s at,” said Assistant Fire Chief Terence Delaney.
He said firefighter Bryce Carden’s job once he reached the truck driver was to secure a harness and attach himself to the driver.
“The person was able to get out after they were in a harness attached to the firefighter in his harness, and then they raised up,” Delaney said. “So in the video, if you saw like a little bit of bouncing, so to make that happen over the edge of the bridge, they have to have a high point. So somewhere to attach the ropes to.”
First responders had a matter of minutes to decide what to do. They opted to use an aerial ladder to perform the rescue.
“If you saw in the video or any of the videos, they moved the aerial ladder over a little bit to get it away from the truck in case the truck fell. We didn’t want them close to the truck, so they moved that over away from the truck. The truck and as they’re trying to bring it up, you got to remember we’re using aerial ladder a little bit to raise it. And then they got to reset their ropes and then move it again, reset their ropes, move it again. So it’s a really slow process,” Delaney said.
Delaney said a rescue like the bridge rescue boils down to repeated practice. Even though rain fell, he said the crews on the bridge used hand signals and shouted to communicate to the dangling crew.
“The rain affected them as far slipping, you know, getting the harness on the patient, getting a patient attached to them, get him (her) to climb out of the rig and get them tied against them that’s a little bit of work right there going on. But as far as like the people that are controlling the safety line and controlling the descent of the firefighter and then ascending them there on the ground,” Delaney said.
First responders were on the scene of the crash within three minutes of the initial call. By 12:45 p.m., the rescue of the driver was complete, and she was safe.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said inspectors assessed the bridge in Sept. 2023. They are one of several agencies inspecting the bridge after the crash to determine what damage happened and when it will reopen to traffic.