PASCAGOULA, Miss. – A truck ran off a major highway bridge and plunged into a river in south Mississippi early Tuesday, killing the driver, authorities said.

The accident happened around 4:30 a.m. The driver’s body was recovered around 7:30 a.m., WLOX-TV reported.

Jackson County’s emergency director, Earl Etheridge, said the driver was trying to avoid another accident scene when the truck went through the bridge’s concrete wall. A passenger sleeping in the back of the truck’s cab was able to escape.

“He suffered minor injuries,” Etheridge said of the passenger. “He was asleep when the cab of the truck went over the bridge.”

Dive teams from the Department of Marine Resources and from the Gautier Police Department worked together to retrieve the driver’s body from the truck. His identity was being withheld Tuesday, pending family notification.