“It’s a god thing” says trucker who helped save couple fully dangling off bridge

A truck driver says god put him in the perfect position to help a couple dangling off an Idaho bridge in their pickup on Tuesday afternoon. 

On March 16th in Gooding County, Idaho, a couple hauling a camper lost control of their pickup while crossing the Malad Gorge Bridge, sending the pickup careening over the edge. Miraculously, instead of plunging to their death, the safety chain attached to the camper trailer held tight, allowing the truck to dangle off the edge of the bridge while remaining anchored to the roadway by the camper and chain. As the couple and their two dogs hung from the bridge, truck driver Rod Drury drove by in his semi truck. 

“I thought it was a fatality accident because I knew a truck had gone over the edge, so I got out of my truck and I was like I don’t even want to look over,” Drury said, and that’s when emergency personnel arrived on the scene. 

Luckily, emergency responders were able to get in contact with the couple via phone, confirming they were alive and conscious before coming up with a plan to stabilize the vehicle using chains from Drury’s semi truck. As the team awaited cranes, ropes, and other rescue equipment, they anchored the dangling pickup to Drury’s rig using some of his chains, preventing the pickup from falling. 

Eventually, a rescue team was able to save the 67-year-old man and 64-year-old woman, along with their two dogs. The couple was transported to a nearby hospital for non life threatening injuries, but the dogs were unhurt. 

“Yesterday it wasn’t even my day to drive that truck, they just asked me to drive that truck to go pick up a tractor in Glenn’s Ferry and that’s one that normally just sits and I just so happened to be in that truck. If it wouldn’t have had that truck with me, I think that [pickup’s] chain might have broken,” Drury said to Idaho News 6.

“You know this is a god thing. I’m looking at life a little bit differently today that’s for sure.”