Eleven days after a vehicle toppled off the Interstate 275 bridge across the Ohio River during a 12-vehicle crash, crews recovered the vehicle and the body of at least one of the victims.
A crane pulled the red car to the surface around noon Saturday. After it was recovered, Capt. Dale Appel, team director of the Boone County Water Rescue Team, confirmed the body of one victim was inside the vehicle.
The victim, according to officials at a news conference following the recovery, is a male from Milford, Ohio, though identification beyond the license plate information was not readily available.
It remains unclear whether there were other passengers in the car.
Officials said at the news conference the body will be taken to Frankfort, Ky., where an autopsy will be performed to identify the victim. Officials hope to have that information by Sunday.
Campbell County Police believe they may know who was in the vehicle and have been in consistent contact with a family of a missing person believed to be driving the same type of car that was recovered.
The vehicle went over the concrete wall at the side of the eastbound lanes of the bridge, which is on that unidentified person’s regular commuting route.
Police said the crash, which occurred just before rush hour, is still under investigation. A reconstruction team will inspect the vehicle, which they expect will provide some answers.
A single diver from Marine Solutions Inc. dropped into the water at 10 a.m. to recover the car, according to Appel.
He said the car was surrounded by debris and is 90% full of silt and sand.
The diver, Ryan Kendall, couldn’t see more than a foot in front of him, and was relying on his sense of touch and imagination to navigate the underwater scene.
The crew placed a line in the water that dropped Kendall 2 feet in front of the car, which he found upside down at the bottom of the river.
He was able to walk around the submerged vehicle to inspect it. Because the vehicle was flipped, Kendall had access to four strong rigging points to strap the car and get it lifted to the surface.
The Boone County Water Rescue Team led the search and recovery, which took about six hours to complete.
Sonar technology was initially used to locate the vehicle in the river soon after the crash, but weather and river conditions delayed the search.
The Boone County Water Rescue Team tried to reach the vehicle on the day of the crash and attached a line from the car to a bridge pier but were unable to resume efforts suspended that night.
The Combs-Hehl bridge, which is more than 1,440 feet long, was built in 1979 to carry I-275 across the Ohio River. A damage inspection after the crash revealed only minor scratches to the railings and small breaks in the concrete.
SOURCE: Kate Murphy and Mallorie Sullivan
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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