Stalled electric car sparked crash that sent truck dangling off bridge

A stalled electric car caused the chain reaction crash that ended in the dramatic rescue of a trucker hanging off of a bridge on Friday. 

The Friday, March 1st accident happened on the Clark Memorial Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky. 

According to WHAS 11, motorist Glenna Hess had just purchased an electric car the day before and was driving along the bridge when it suddenly stopped. 

“I’ve driven electric cars for 10 years. I was noticing there was fluctuation in the electrical system. The power would be at 90% then to 80. As I was coming back from Jeffersonville, it said I had a 24-mile range, which was fine,” Hess said. “I just wanted to get across the bridge and call AAA. I was going to take it back to Carvana.”

But the “the motor just came to a dead stop on the 2nd Street Bridge,” she said. “I had blinkers on, called AAA, who alerted police. Everyone was fine. They saw the blinkers until of course, somebody didn’t,” Hess said. “And then that set off the string of events that led to everything that happened on Friday at 12 o’clock.”

She said the first crash between two cars ended in a bad injury, and after that is when the semi truck approached the scene. 

“I saw a blue pickup truck with a badly injured person in front of me and I look behind and I see the semi,” Hess said. “You see this woman is hanging out, I mean, you can see her and you’re thinking, it’s a wonder she’s not dead.”

That’s when the semi truck went off of the bridge, leaving the trucker dangling off the side. 

“I can’t imagine the trauma she’s feeling,” Hess said. “She’s a hero, how she maneuvered the whole situation.”

Hess was told by Carvana that they will not allow her to return the vehicle because it has been damaged. 

One person injured in the wreck was critically injured and is still in the hospital.