Washington state bridge collapses after truck crash, 2 vehicles hurled into river, driver Dan Sligh pulls wife to safety
A truck carrying an oversize load struck a bridge on the major thoroughfare between Seattle and Canada, sending a section of the span and two vehicles into the Skagit River below, though all three occupants suffered only minor injuries.
One driver,Dan Sligh, said he could see it coming. An 18-wheeler carrying an oversize load had just struck part of the Interstate 5 bridge over Washington’s frigid Skagit River.
The pavement was giving way, so Sligh slammed on the brakes, but the momentum of his truck and trailer carried Sligh and his wife off the bridge and into the water dozens of feet below, he told CNN affiliate KOMO Thursday, hours after the incident some 60 miles north of Seattle.
“You hold on as tight as you can,” Sligh said. Then, a “white flash and cold water.”
The impact dislocated his shoulder, but the Navy veteran just popped it back in and dragged his unresponsive wife to safety.
Another driver also fell from the bridge, according to state officials.
The collapse was the result of a collision between the tractor-trailer and the overhead structure of the bridge, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste told reporters.
“The size of the load that he was carrying appeared to create a problem, causing him to strike the bridge,” he said.
It had been rated “functionally deficient,” according to a federal database, but it was not clear Friday if the bridge’s condition played any role in the collapse.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to investigate the collapse. State police and the state highway department are also investigating.
Photo screenshot of video coverage: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/24/highway-bridge-collapses-in-washington-state-people-in-water/
