A semi-truck driver is crediting God and speaking up about a near-death experience she had after her semi teetered off a bridge in Kentucky.
The four-vehicle accident happened on March 1 on the Clark Memorial Bridge in Louisville, KY. A 33-year-old male was driving a pickup truck and allegedly lost control while on the two-lane bridge, hitting a semi-truck.
Twenty-six-year-old Sydney Thomas was driving the semi when she saw the pickup truck come into her lane. Thomas shared that after the pickup hit the front end of her semi, it took out her suspension which caused her to lose full control of the vehicle. It subsequently veered left and through the cement wall of the bridge, leaving Thomas dangling over the Ohio River.
"When I went through the railing, I was like, ‘Wow, this is a crazy way to die,'" Thomas said in an interview.
While the accident was over two months ago, Thomas decided to share her thoughts on the incident this week.
"Sometimes you pray, and I’m guilty of this: I pray, and I don’t think God is listening. But He was that day."
Thomas' father Marc talked to the local news station to share his thoughts on the accident.
"It didn’t really hit me until I looked over to my right [while crossing the Kennedy Bridge] and I’d seen that equipment hanging into the air. That was nothing but God displaying himself to me."
While Thomas was strapped in with her seatbelt, staring at the 100-foot drop to the water below, she had nothing but time. Thomas recalls trying to stay very still so as not to cause the semi to take the plunge. During that time, she fervently prayed.
When emergency crews showed up it was Bryce Carden who got harnessed up to rescue Thomas. When Carden finally reached the driver's side window, he immediately asked if he could pray for her.
"She was praying a lot," Carden said. "And I prayed with her."
The accident has shaken Thomas, who vows never to cross the Clark Memorial Bridge again. However, she also gives God credit to her life being saved that day.
"God has me here for a reason and I have to fulfill my purpose in life. And I can’t let something like that stop me from doing what I’m supposed to do for Him, because He brought me out of it."