Posted on 05/26/2002 6:28:04 PM PDT by blam
List Of Bridge And Barge Collapses
Monday May 27, 2002 1:40 AM
A list of notable accidents involving barges hitting bridges, according to the Gulf Coast Mariners Association, which keeps track of such accidents:
- May 9, 1980: The 609-foot freighter Summit Venture was navigating through the narrow, winding shipping channel of Florida's Tampa Bay when a sudden, blinding squall knocked out the ship's radar. The ship sheared a bridge support, dropping a 1,400-foot section of concrete roadway during morning rush hour. Seven vehicles, including a bus with 26 aboard, fell 150 feet into the water. Thirty-five people died.
- May 28, 1993: The towboat Chris, pushing the empty hopper barge DM3021, hit a support tier of the Judge William Seeber Bridge in New Orleans. The accident caused two spans and the two-column bent to collapse onto the barge. Two cars carrying three people fell with the four-lane bridge deck in the canal. One person died and two people were seriously injured.
- Sept. 22, 1993: Barges being pushed by a towboat in dense fog hit and displaced the Big Bayou Canot railroad bridge near Mobile, Ala. Minutes later, an Amtrak train with 220 people aboard reached the displaced bridge and derailed, killing 47 people and injuring 103 people.
- April 14, 1998: The Anne Holly tow traveling through the St. Louis Harbor rammed into the center span of the Eads Bridge. Eight barges broke away. Three of them hit a permanently moored gaming vessel below the bridge. Fifty people suffered minor injuries.
- Sept. 15, 2001: A tug boat and barge struck the Queen Isabella Causeway in Port Isabel, Texas, causing a midsection of the bridge to tumble into the bay 80 feet below. Eight people died after motorists drove into the hole.
- May 26, 2002: A barge hit an interstate bridge over the Arkansas River at Webbers Falls, Okla., collapsing a 500-foot section of roadway and sending about a dozen vehicles plunging into the water. Officials expected to find five to 12 bodies in the submerged vehicles but said it would probably be Monday or Tuesday before the victims could be removed.
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