Barge Hits Bridge on Arkansas River

[Gonzo]

Why would an Interstate bridge collapse? Now I'm nervous.

SALLISAW, Okla. (AP) - A barge knocked out a 400-foot section of a bridge on Interstate 40 over the Arkansas River early Sunday, sending several cars plunging into the water, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.


At least three people were being treated for injuries, hospital officials said, and more ambulances were arriving. The Sequoyah County Sheriff's Department and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said they were in a state of emergency.

Several cars were in the water, and dive teams were on the way to the scene, in the southwest part of the state, said Sam Graves, communications officer for the Highway Patrol.

A second bridge, at Webbers Falls, where traffic would have tried to pass after the first bridge collapsed, also was hit Sunday morning and was shaking but hadn't collapsed, Webbers Falls Mayor Jewell Horn said. She said that bridge had since been closed.

 

[Q]

Barges and bridges make a bad combo. The Sunshine Skyway got creamed in 1980.
At 7:38 a.m. May 9, 1980, during a blinding spring squall, the freighter Summit Venture rammed into the Sunshine Skyway and knocked out a 1,200-foot length of the bridge across the mouth of Tampa Bay. Thirty five people -- most of them in a Greyhound Bus -- plunged 150 feet to their deaths.
...of course the captain of the barge being drunk mighta had something to do with it too.

 

[Q]

Here's another pic

 

[Gonzo]

WEBBERS FALLS, Okla. (AP) - A barge hit an interstate bridge over the Arkansas River during a storm Sunday, collapsing a 500-foot section of roadway and sending about a dozen vehicles plunging into the water with people trapped inside, authorities said.

Officials expected to find a total of five to 12 bodies in the submerged vehicles but said it would likely be Monday or Tuesday before all the victims could be removed.

 

[leslie]

That's one of my deathly fears, being on a bridge and it collapsing. I HATE being in a car on a bridge.

Those poor people.