A Milwaukee driver survived a harrowing 70-foot drop from an interchange exit ramp over the weekend.
A Wisconsin Department of Transportation camera captured the fall, which occurred Saturday morning on Milwaukee’s I-94 Zoo Interchange. Footage shows a red pickup smashing into an overpass ramp and careening off the side before landing upright.
The male driver — who showed no signs of impairment — was still conscious and breathing after the accident, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. Two citizens came to his aid.
“A preliminary investigation indicated the driver was driving on the ramp from the East to the South in the Zoo Interchange when he lost control of the vehicle,” the sheriff’s office tweeted. “The vehicle traveled up a snowbank, proceeded over the barrier wall and descended 70 feet down onto the westbound I-94 distress lane. The Milwaukee Fire Department arrived on the scene and conveyed the driver to a local hospital.”
Further information about the driver’s condition was not immediately available.
Eddie Santiago, Milwaukee County’s director of highways and maintenance, told local media outlet WISN-TV that the agency was working around the clock to remove snow from highway lanes to prevent accidents, but said slippery conditions always remained a danger.
“The biggest risk with that is the melting and the freezing creates sort of a ramp, a natural ramp,” Santiago said.