Interstate 64 was shut down for hours near Charleston after the occupant of a vehicle crash refused to leave a bridge catwalk Thursday afternoon.
Officials are unsure if the woman was the driver or passenger in the single vehicle crash on the Nitro-St. Albans Bridge over the Kanawha River, or why she ended up on the catwalk below the roadway.
She refused to leave the catwalk for several hours, Nitro Police Chief Chris Fleming told WCHS.
Firefighters from Kanawha and Putnam counties were summoned to the scene to establish a rope system to remove the woman.
“We train for everything. This is one we don’t do a lot of, but the guys did really well today performing the rescue,” Nitro Fire Chief Casey Mathes told the television station.
“The interstate’s a bad spot, first off," Mathes said. "The traffic on there made it very complicated to do operations. The bridge bounces pretty bad, the noise factor. It is dangerous for anyone on the bridge.”
The woman was taken to the hospital for evaluations.
