Dashcam footage shows terrified driver of semi-trailer dangling off Louisville bridge: ‘I really thought I was going to die’
Dramatic dashcam footage shows the moment a pickup truck veered into oncoming traffic and struck a tractor-trailer that plowed through a guardrail and hung over the edge of a Louisville bridge.
The pickup driver, 33-year-old Trevor Branham, avoided rear-ending a stalled out vehicle in his lane when he quickly swerved, but ended up slamming into the front bumper of the Sysco semi-truck on the Clark Memorial Bridge on March 1, the video obtained by WHAS shows.
Footage from inside the semi-truck cabin shows 26-year-old driver Sydney Thomas furiously try to get a handle on the wheel and avoid hitting other cars on the roadway.
As the tractor-trailer veered off the road and over the side of the bridge, Thomas had a terrified look on her face and then quickly looked outside her window as the cabin hung 100 feet over the edge of the Ohio River.
Pieces of front bumper can be seen plunging into the water as the truck dangles off the side.
“When I went through the railing, I was like, ‘Wow, this is a crazy way to die,’” Thomas told WHAS on Thursday. “I really thought I was going to die.”
“Sometimes you pray, and I’m guilty of this, I pray, and I don’t think God is listening,” a choked-up Thomas added. “But he was that day.”
The new dashcam video was shown in court on Wednesday during a hearing for Branham, who is facing multiple charges from the incident, including driving with a suspended license and wanton endangerment, WHAS reported.
While most of the truck was hanging from the side of the road, rescuers rappelled down to pull Thomas to safety. The rescue took about 40 minutes.
The semi-truck could have shifted at any moment while it was pinned between one of the banisters and concrete, authorities said.
Thomas told WHAS as she sat in the driver’s seat over the raging river, she tried to figure out what she’d do if it went into a freefall.
“I was thinking, ‘If it starts going, you’re going to have to move fast. Unbuckle that seat belt, open that door and jump out because you’re going to drown,’” the mother of a 5-year-old recalled.
“I would rather drown trying to swim than be submerged underneath the water and not being able to get out,” she also said.
