'I don't want to die': 911 call details moments semi driver spent hanging from interstate

USA Today

13-05-2025

'I don't want to die': 911 call details moments semi driver spent hanging from interstate
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911 call: Driver dangles in semi truck from I-65
911 call released by MetroSafe dispatchers shows call with the driver in a semi truck seen dangling off I-65 after a crash, no injuries were reported.
A semi-truck driver was rescued after his cab dangled over the edge of I-65 in Louisville, Kentucky.
The driver remained on the phone with a 911 dispatcher for nearly 20 minutes during the ordeal.
Louisville 911 call taker Martyna Wohner said she's never had a call like this. "I was scared for him."
A nearly 20-minute call with a dispatch operator in Kentucky provides a chilling glimpse of what went through a frantic driver's mind as waited for rescue inside the cab of the tractor trailer as it dangled over the edge of Interstate 65 near the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge.
"I'm about to fall down from the bridge," the driver told the operator. "I'm just hanging over the bridge. I don't want to die."
What transpired was a daring rescue that made for visuals worthy of a Hollywood action blockbuster, except it wasn't fiction. For first responders in Louisville and for the driver and his family and onlookers, is was deadly real.
The incident was reported at 9:47 a.m. on May 4, and Louisville Fire and Rescue crews rescued the driver, who has not been identified, about 30 minutes after arriving at the scene of the crash, Louisville Division of Fire spokesperson Donovan Sims said in a statement.
Louisville Metro Police spokesperson Aaron Ellis said the cause of the crash is still under investigation as of May 5.
'If I don't survive, can you just leave the recording to my family?'
The first report came in about 9:45 a.m. on May 4, the day after the Kentucky Derby, according to Louisville Fire Capt. Donovan Sims: A semi-truck going southbound had crashed on the interstate connecting Louisville to Indiana to the North and Tennessee to the south.
The 911 operator quickly learned she was on phone with the driver, who described "looking at the ground" as the truck cab's nose dangled over the side. The operator instructed him to hold still as police and fire personnel responded.
"I'm not even moving. Please help me," the driver said.
As the minutes ticked by, the driver grew antsy, asking numerous time when rescue crews would arrive.
"I don't even know, how am I supposed to get out of here?" he asked.
The operator reassured him throughout the call, noting at one point a previous rescue operation when Louisville Fire officials saved a driver from a tractor trailer dangling over the Ohio River on Clark Memorial Bridge in March 2024.
"Why do I got to die tonight?" the driver said.
"They're going to get you out. You're going to be OK," the operator said.
"Is it even possible? You don't know," the driver responded.
"I mean, I know they can get you out. They've done it before," the operator continued. "This happened about, I want to say like a year and a half ago, as well, and they got the person out."
Once crews arrived, and rescue operations began, the driver's concerns continued: He couldn't see what they were doing because of the cab's angle.
"If I don't survive, can you just leave the recording to my family, too?" he asked.
Driver hoisted to safety after crash leaves truck dangling from bridge
Firefighters rescued a driver from a semi truck hanging off an overpass after a crash on May 4, in Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville Fire Department
A rescuer from Louisville Fire was eventually lowered into the cab via a high-point rope system and the driver was rescued without injury, officials said.
'I was scared for him': 911 operator taker recounts call with truck driver
Louisville MetroSafe 911 communications specialist Martyna Wohner sounded calm during the call. But inside? "I was scared for him," she later told reporters.
"I don't want to let him know I'm scared for him, just because I know he's scared. I tried to be calm for him," said Wohner, who's been with MetroSafe for more than three years. "… I've got a couple calls in mind that were high pressure, but I've never had one like this."
Around Wohner, fellow 911 operators were getting calls from other drivers passing the scene. She told the truck driver first responders would be there as soon as possible and reassured him that once they arrived, "they've got it."
"He kept asking if he could leave a message for his family, and he was scared that he was going to die," she recounted. "I was scared for him, but I knew they could get there."
Wohner, who's also enlisted with the National Guard, stayed on the line while crews rushed to the scene — they were there within seven minutes, according to Louisville Fire Chief Brian O'Neill. She could tell the driver wasn't from Louisville, so she encouraged him by mentioning the rescue of the other truck driver last year.
Minutes later, a firefighter with Rescue Company 2, the same crew that responded to the 2024 crash on the Second Street Bridge, rappelled down and pulled the man to safety from the cabin.
The driver survived. Wohner hung up the phone, pulled herself together and then got back to answering 911 calls.
"I took about a five-minute break for myself to process what I just did and what (rescue crews) were about to do up there," she told reporters this week. "But then I got right back to it."
Reporter Leo Bertucci contributed. Contact reporter Killian Baarlaer at [e-mail] or @bkillian72 on X. Reach Lucas Aulbach at [e-mail].