Two semi trucks plunged off two Interstate 40 bridges within minutes of each other in Arkansas over the weekend.
The accidents occurred on Friday, August 10th in St. Frances County, Arkansas.
According to Fox 16 News, the Saint Francis County Sheriff’s Department says that the first crash occurred when a FedEx truck reportedly struck another big rig while traveling along I-40 at Little Bivens Bayou, sending the FedEx truck off I-40 and down into the bayou, coming to a rest partially in the water.
“You could see the truck going down in a big ball of dust,” said witness David Boling, who quickly stopped his car and raced down into the bayou, where passersby were already attempting to smash the windows of the rig to remove the unconscious driver from the wrecked semi truck.
“We turned him around and hooked the rope on him, and there was two of us in the water […] some guys were on the bank, and we slid him up the bank,” Boling continued.
Then, 45 minutes after the first truck driver was rescued, a second semi truck plunged off another bridge along I-40, sending the rig down an embankment.
The unnamed driver, who suffered a stroke while driving, was then rescued by emergency personnel and flown to a nearby hospital for treatment.
“He was jammed in there pretty tight. We had to move a few things and the people on the outside, people on the inside moving around in real tight quarters,” said one emergency responder.
Luckily, both drivers survived their ordeals and are expected to make full recoveries
