Emergency crews rescued a couple and their two dogs after they were stranded dangling over a 250ft deep gorge when their pickup truck plunged off a bridge in Idaho.
In a statement on Monday evening, Idaho State Police (ISP) confirmed that a state trooper responded to an incident at a bridge spanning the Malad Gorge at around 2.45pm earlier that day, discovering a man, a woman and two small dogs trapped inside their pickup truck dangling over the edge.
The gorge reaches around 250ft at its deepest point and is located around 100ft below the bridge, which is roughly the height of a 10-storey building according to the Associated Press.
The vehicle was prevented from falling over the bridge because of a set of “safety chains” attached to the back of the truck that were being used to tow a 30ft camper trailer behind it.
After calling for emergency crews to help with the rescue, the state trooper alongside a local sheriff’s deputy used an additional set of chains from a different truck to help keep the vehicle in place.
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Emergency crews then used ropes to rappel down from the bridge to the truck and attach safety harnesses to the couple and their dogs, before carrying them up to safety.
The two dogs, who were unharmed, were then taken to a home near a family member, while the couple were taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
As of Monday evening, the emergency crews were still attempting to pull the truck back up to the bridge, while the road was closed as the camper blocked both lanes.
Speaking to the AP, ISP spokeswoman Lynn Hightower praised the emergency crews, saying that “It was definitely a heroic rescue from everybody that was out there, and thankfully, they’re all fine.”
The spokeswoman added: “A rescue like this takes a lot of quick thinking and action but this is what they train for.
“That training just paid off today, and two people are alive because of the hours and hours of training that these emergency responders do.”
Ms Hightower revealed that witnesses told authorities that the truck appeared to lose control before the crash, hitting barriers on both sides of the bridge before falling towards the gorge below.
She confirmed that the incident remains under investigation.
