Two people have died after a pickup truck crashed on the Arlington Memorial Bridge and plunged into the icy Potomac River during rush hour Thursday evening, authorities say.
Multiple sources familiar with the rescue tell News4 rescue crews, including D.C. fire divers, were delayed in getting to the truck because the river was frozen and the ice-breaking boat was out of service.
One person was rescued from the truck with life-threatening injuries late Thursday and later died. Crews were able to lift the truck out of the river on Friday and found a second person dead inside, U.S. Park Police said in an update.
Photos show a crew hoisting the truck out of the river vertically.
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A crash and then a terrifying plunge
The white pickup truck’s driver was headed out of Arlington, Virginia, and toward D.C. about 7 p.m. when the driver crashed into another vehicle, lost control and veered across all lanes of traffic.
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Dashcam video shows the moment the truck slammed into the bridge’s stone railings. Witnesses are then seen running across traffic to try to help.
D.C. Fire and EMS, the Metropolitan Police Department Harbor Unit and first responders from multiple other jurisdictions rushed to the scene. Divers jumped into the freezing river.
One person pulled from the river received "advanced life support" on the shore, D.C. Fire and EMS said. That person was taken to a hospital with critical, life-threatening injuries, fire officials said.
On Friday, U.S. Park Police confirmed one person died. The second person in the truck was found Friday. Their names were not immediately released.
Medics treated two people in another vehicle for minor injuries.
“The divers have equipment for conditions like this,” D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said after the crash. “It’s hard work; it’s very dangerous work. So not only are they dealing with cold weather. They’re dealing with the current; they’re dealing with limited access. They’ve all been through rehab. There’s no other injuries to report to any of the responders. But it really is a complicated effort.”
Rescue crews searched around the sunken pickup and found no other people in the water.
It wasn't immediately clear why the pickup driver crashed.
Traffic came to a stop on the bridge, which was closed for hours as U.S. Park Police diverted traffic. The bridge was back open to traffic early Friday. Officers were posted at the gaping hole in the stone railing and metal barricades were in place.
'Not having the right resources there to do the job made the job more difficult'
The two D.C. fire boats that are in service were too small to break the ice, as was the fire boat from Virginia that assisted in the response. The Coast Guard boat that could break the ice is too big to make it under the bridge to that location.
The John Glenn fire boat can break ice and pass under bridges. But it has been docked in a Baltimore maintenance yard since 2022 for repairs. Records show those repairs have cost more than $2.5 million so far. There’s no timeline for its return to service.
David Hoagland with the firefighters’ union raised concerns about the Glenn being out of service long before the fatal crash.
“Obviously this was a difficult rescue under difficult circumstances, and not having the right resources there to do the job made the job more difficult,” he said.
“Given the conditions last night, a bigger boat Is obviously going to be able to make it through icier conditions faster than the boats that were used on the rescue,” Hoagland continued.
“Had the John Glenn been in service the past few days, it would have been sailing all up and down all the waterways of the District, making sure there was clear, clear path for boat traffic and emergency boat traffic, so it would have been a much shorter response,” he said.
News4 had been asking D.C. officials about the status of the fire boat for two weeks. On Thursday morning, before the crash, News4 spoke with two D.C. Council members about the Glenn being out of service for so long.
“I have been banging that drum for years and years and years,” Councilmember Charles Allen said. “To find out that it's been sitting in a dock now for two-and-a-half years is wholly unacceptable.”
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Councilmember Brooke Pinto also flagged the problem early Thursday, before the crash.
“I'm very concerned. We absolutely have to have our assets available to protect and to help District residents, especially when they're in a disaster.”
On Friday, after the crash, D.C.’s fire chief spoke with News4. He said there was no delay to the response and that repairs on the fire boat had grown more complicated.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.