"It's the main interstate that travels east and west through the state of Oklahoma.Water flows uncontrolled around a sunken barge on the water upstream side of Webbers Falls Lock & Dam 16 near Webbers Falls Oklahoma, on August 20, 2019. "There are probably thousands of cars that travel over this bridge every day," he said. Interstate 40 normally has heavy traffic through the area, said Highway Patrol Sgt. He probably swam out, but he simply doesn't remember." "He doesn't remember how he got out of his vehicle. "One gentleman said he was driving and all of a sudden there was nothing under him," Wetz said. A fifth person was taken to Sequoyah Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. It wasn't clear if the same barge hit both bridges.īoth bridges are about 100 miles east of Oklahoma Cit about 35 miles west of the Arkansas line.įour people injured in the collapse were being treated yesterday at Muskogee Regional Hospital, all in stable condition, administrator Ched Wetz said. Lake patrol units interviewed the captain, and the National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team to investigate.Ī second nearby bridge also was hit yesterday morning but was still being used, although one of its pillars was damaged, Webbers Falls Mayor Jewell Horne said. "We're still investigating what caused the accident." "They just got hold of the bridge span there somehow," Guthrie said. None of the seven crew members was injured, officials said. Love, was pushing two barges when the accident occurred. in Vicksburg, Miss., said the company's 104-foot-long towboat, the Robert Y. Shane Guthrie, personnel manager for Magnolia Marine Transport Co.
#WEBBER FALLS OK BARGES DRIVER#
The driver had slammed on his brakes when he noticed the bridge was gone, authorities said.īarge pinned under bridgeBoth eastbound and westbound sections of the Interstate 40 bridge, about 75 feet above the Arkansas River, collapsed, pinning the barge beneath it. Huge slabs of concrete where the west side of the bridge gave way slumped in the water close to the river's edge.Ī pickup truck rested on top of one section of collapsed concrete at the west end of the bridge, which rested on the embankment.
Yesterday afternoon, rescue crews in boats moved along the river's surface, picking up floating pieces of car seats, clothing and diapers. The damaged pilings were all on the west end of the bridge.Īt nearby Webbers Falls, officials were setting up a morgue inside city hall, and a funeral home had become a meeting place for families searching for relatives who might have been on the bridge. Two bridge pilings in the water were knocked down, and one piling on the bank was tilted. John Harris of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said there was still hope for air pockets in the submerged vehicles and it was possible divers would be able to reach the cars yesterday evening. Keating said the total number could be as low at nine. Josef Blann, a diver with the Marine Corps Reserve, said authorities believed 15 vehicles went into the river, including 12 cars, two tractor-trailer rigs and a horse trailer. "The loss of life is something that is unbearable for all of us because these are people traveling on Memorial Day from all over the country," the governor said. It wasn't clear whether the storm and fast-moving river water contributed to the crash. They said it veered right into the piling and here came the road." "There was a number of fishermen down there who saw it happen.
"One of the fire officials asked two tug mates and they said it was a seizure or a blackout and the captain hit the bridge," Keating said.
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