On video: Driver survives skidding off ramp, plunging 70 feet onto highway
From WISN 12:
A driver is lucky to be alive after he skidded off an interchange ramp and plunged 70 feet to the highway below.
The crash happened Saturday morning on I-94 at the Zoo Interchange.
It was captured on Wisconsin Department of Transportation camera video.
WISN 12 obtained that video Monday.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office said a pickup truck traveling on I-94 when the driver skidded off the eastbound to the southbound ramp.
The video appears to show the truck hitting a snowbank on the right shoulder seconds before the fall.
The driver lost control and went over the barrier wall.
He then plunged 70 feet down onto the westbound I-94 distress lane.
When deputies arrived, they found the pickup upright.
Two people were helping the driver, who was conscious and breathing.
The sheriff's office said he did not show signs of impairment.
He was taken to an area hospital to be evaluated.
Milwaukee County said it works as quickly as possible to eliminate snow from distress lanes in order to avoid crashes.
"The biggest risk with that is the melting and the freezing creates sort of a ramp, a natural ramp," Milwaukee County's Director of Highways and Maintenance Eddie Santiago said.
He said after plowing, snowplows shift to removal from bridges and overpasses because of the danger.
One of the ways they do that is with three giant snow blowers the county has.
The county prioritizes snow removal by the height of the road above the ground.
A second incident last weekend was also captured on DOT video.
It showed an SUV go up an ice ramp and onto a median wall.
But luckily it stopped there.
The county prioritizes removal by the height of the roadway above the ground.
Four years ago, a small pickup hit a patch of ice on the approach to the High Rise bridge, skidding into the snowbank and ramping over the side.
A 27-year-old man was killed.
Crews work in shifts 24 hours a day.
They also using giant front-end loaders to haul snow away.
"The snow is hard as concrete so a lot of our equipment is out there, basically chipping away at the, literally chipping away at the snow and ice to get that removed," Santiago said.
I-94 westbound and all of the ramps were closed for several hours.
The sheriff's office said it continues to investigate the crash at the Zoo Interchange.
No other details have been released.