4 People Survive 40-Foot Fall From Liberty Bridge
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - There are new details about how a pickup truck plummeted off the side of the Liberty Bridge Tuesday evening and down to the road below.
Looking at what remains of the Ford Ranger pickup, witnesses and experts agree the people inside were fortunate to get out alive.
The names of those involved haven't been released, but the driver told police he lost his brakes as he came across the Crosstown Expressway and approached the Liberty Bridge.
There was traffic in his path, so the driver says he went right to avoid a crash and wound up on the bridge's sidewalk still with no way to stop and nothing but a chain link fence ahead.
"We heard the metal come falling down, and then the truck just came airborne off the overpass," said one witness who did not want to be identified.
The witness said she saw it happen from across the street, and couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"It was like something out of a movie," she said.
The roof of the truck hit the bridge girder and smashed in, and then the whole truck fell to Second Avenue, 40 feet below.
"We ran up and three of the occupants were already exiting the vehicle, and the driver was pinned inside of it," said the witness.
Charles Blanchard heard the crash from his office and ran to the driver.
"There was an individual, a young man trapped in the vehicle," said Blanchard. "Apparently, the door and the side of the cab had collapsed on the side of his body."
Blanchard kept the driver calm until paramedics arrived. He said the driver was asking him what happened. All four were taken to UPMC Mercy Hospital.
"We're getting three who are in serious condition and expected to be all right and one is being treated and expected to survive," said Commander Scott Schubert, of Pittsburgh Police.
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