Patrick Brennan, and Bob Strickley

Cincinnati

The Boone County Water Rescue team has suspended efforts to recover the vehicle and occupants that plunged into the Ohio River from the Combs-Hehl Bridge because of high water levels and strong currents.

Initial police scanner reports described a red vehicle with three passengers that fell into the river Tuesday around 4:30 p.m. but Campbell County Police Chief Craig Sorrell said he could not immediately confirm how many passengers were inside.

The Boone County Water Rescue Team told police it could be Sunday or Monday before the conditions of the Ohio River allow crews to safely renew efforts to remove the submerged vehicle and its occupants, according to a statement from the Campbell County Police Department.

911 callers describe seeing car fall from bridge

Police don't have confirmation on the vehicle's type, registration, owner, or the occupants who may still be inside. Anyone who is unable to locate friends or family members who may have traveled on the bridge at the time of the crash is asked to call police at 859-547-3100.

Sonar technology was used to locate the vehicle in the river near a bridge pier as deep as 40 feet, said Dale Appel, director of Boone County Water Rescue. Search teams were called off early Wednesday morning but returned to the scene to attempt to recover the vehicle from the "very unfriendly river."

The Ohio River has a current of 4 mph, which is eight times its normal speed, Appel said.

"The river is out of control for major operations," Appel said. "We're trying to figure out how to get the people and car out right now. We know exactly where the car is and what position it's in."

Campbell County police said officials will "closely monitor" the river conditions to determine when recovery attempts can begin.

Police closed eastbound I-275 at the bridge that crosses into Ohio at Kellogg Avenue around 4:30 p.m. It reopened around 11 p.m., more than six hours after the car involved in a crash with 11 other vehicles left the roadway and fell into the river.

“At some point, that one vehicle did go over the side of the bridge and into the river,” Sorrell said Tuesday night. “That vehicle has been located. Boone County Water Rescue is assessing to see if anyone is still in the vehicle.”

A witness who called 911 said she "just witnessed a car being hit, and it went into the Ohio River."

Sorrell said the vehicle was located near the midpoint between the Ohio and Kentucky shores and appeared to have not been impacted by the current.

Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Breaking News

“The vehicle is pretty close to the bridge, which is somewhat surprising,” Sorrell said. “The vehicle went off the eastbound side of the bridge and may have floated a little ways before falling to the bottom of the river.”

Because of the traffic caused by the crash, poll locations for the Ohio primary election in Butler, Clermont, Hamilton and Warren counties were ordered open until 8:30 p.m.

Ryan Watts, spokesman for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, said water rescue units would continue the search. Sorrell said accident reconstruction workers were gathering data and would have a clearer picture of how the crash occurred later in the week, but said there were at least four individual collisions that factored into one vehicle leaving the bridge deck. None of the injuries suffered by motorists on the bridge were considered life-threatening.

As a result of the crash, police emptied the eastbound lanes of I-275 back to the I-471 split. Normal I-275 traffic toward the East Side instead went through via U.S. 50, which was experiencing delays into the night Tuesday.