Wedding Photo Shoot Almost Ended in Disaster After Bridge Crash
This could have been a story about how a wedding party photo shoot in Cincinnati on March 17 turned into a tragic accident. We’re happy to write about how — along with some good luck — it turned into a good deed instead.
Photographer Cassandra Zetta took grooms Ryan Fultz and Sean Johnson, along with their wedding party, to a beautiful spot under the concrete Victory Parkway Bridge in Walnut Hills, Ohio, on Friday afternoon, hours before their wedding. The structure of the bridge makes a striking background, and it sheltered everyone from the rain.
Then, according to Fox 19, an 18-year-old woman driving over the Victory Parkway Bridge lost control of her car and crashed into the bridge railing. Her car knocked a huge chunk of concrete onto the ground below.
“We knew something was up,” Fultz tells Yahoo Style. “The sound of the car slamming against the concrete was undeniable.”
“Some of us were under the bridge, and some of us were already out from under the bridge, and we just heard this large crash and started seeing concrete fall,” Amanda Perini, Fultz’s sister and matron of honor, tells Yahoo Style. They had just been walking down the hill where the concrete had fallen, and Perini’s sister had suggested they walk back along a different route to avoid slipping in the wet grass and mud. “Had they chosen just to walk back down that hill — they were walking when this happened, so it could have been super-tragic.”
Judging by how deep the piece is embedded into the ground, it could have easily killed someone. Perini says at first they feared more of the bridge would collapse.
“The tires of the car were still spinning, and we didn’t know if the car was going to go completely over,” she told local station WLWT.
While Fultz made sure everyone was safe, Johnson turned his attention to the driver.
“Sean ran over to the stairs, ran up to the top of the bridge, and was checking on the driver, called 911, and requested that the driver of our bus come up and around and close enough that we could bring the driver onto the bus and wait with her for the police and her dad to arrive,” Perini tells Yahoo Style. “She was so young, and honestly it had been raining, and it was probably inexperience, because she said she had started to slide. She probably over-corrected or something.”
Fortunately, the rest of the day went smoothly, and Fultz said the accident helped put things in perspective.
“After the initial shock passed, we realized just how fortunate we were that we all walked away from the incident, including the driver,” he says. “There was definitely someone looking out for us.”
Fultz adds: “So, if anything, it made us more grateful to celebrate the rest of the day! And let’s be honest, it’s going to make any other mistake on your wedding day seem trivial. ‘Oh, it’s raining?!?… At least we didn’t get crushed by a piece of a bridge!'”
Read more from Yahoo Beauty + Style:
Not Even an Exploding Bus Can Keep This Bride and Groom Down
A Sheriff and His Fiancée Scared Friends and Family With Their Wedding Invitations
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