I-5 bridge collapses over Skagit River, sending vehicles, people into water

http://q13fox.com/2013/05/23/breaking-i-5-bridge-collapses-over-skagit-river-vehicles-people-in-water/ ^ | Q13

[djf]

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — A portion of an Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River, about 60 miles north of Seattle, collapsed Thursday, sending three vehicles and people plunging into the cold water at least 50 feet below.

Amazingly, there were no fatalities, Skagit County authorities said. Three people were pulled from the river and taken to Skagit Valley Hospital and United General Hospital; two were reported to be in stable condition, the other had minor injuries and was being released Thursday night.

The survivor who was released was identified as Dan Sligh, 47. His wife, Sally Sligh, 56, remained in the hospital. The other injured person was reported to be a 20-year-old man.

Both the northbround and southbound lanes of the northern section of the bridge collapsed at about 7 p.m.

This section of I-5 runs between the Washington cities of Burlington and Mount Vernon.

When rescuers arrived, people were sitting on top of their submerged cars. The water is about 18 feet deep where the bridge collapse took place.

Gov. Jay Inslee headed to the scene to monitor the rescue efforts, and the National Transportation Safety Board said it was monitoring the situation as well.

Inslee later told a news conference that repairing the bridge is “job No. 1″ and that it’s unknown how long it will take to replace the bridge. I-5 is a main north-south arterial for northwestern Washington state.He said he will authorize the Transportation Department to establish detour routes to minimize impact on traffic and commerce.

“Witnesses say a truck hit the bridge and caused it to collapse, but an investigation has been launched to confirm that,” Inslee said. “Any witnesses or people with information should contact the State Patrol.

“The National Transportation Safety Board is on their way tomorrow, and I’ve been in touch with our federal partners. We will be involved in a vigorous and diligent effort to get traffic flowing again through the Skagit bridge corridor and I will issue an emergency proclamation tomorrow to make sure we have the resources to do so as quickly as possible,” Inslee said.

Goskagit.com said one driver who had just crossed the bridge shortly before it collapsed told a reporter he felt a vibration and looked in his rear view mirror to see that the section of bridge he had just crossed was no longer behind him.

“I thought something was wrong with my car at first,” the man told the reporter about feeling the vibration.

The bridge was built in 1955, was inspected last November and it received passing grades, Treece said.

[Rannug]

I made my living for a while hauling oversized loads. A dispatcher would contact, in my case, ODOT. ODOT would ok the load, but the driver had to follow the specified routes. Heaven forbid if he went off route. OH yeah, different states had different rules to follow for the same load.
There was a major foulup here. I wonder if those involved could read English.

[thecodont]

I wonder if those involved could read English.

It's the first question on my mind when I read of an industrial accident.

Think of all the businesses hiring "under the table" to avoid taxes and red tape. Who is first in line and the lowest bidder for the job? Not an American. Not someone even with the desire to BECOME an American, but rather someone who is only here long enough to make enough money to return home to his own country and prosper there.

Such a person isn't interested in assimilation or literacy in the English language. The employer isn't going to bother training this "in the shadows" employee either. Can't read safety guidelines? No problemo!

Human lives and property are the price we pay for illegal immigration and lack of enforcement of our borders.

[yellowdoghunter]

Lol! Have a great Memorial Day. I thank your family for their service.

[BykrBayb]

Great to see you. I hope you have a blessed Memorial Day.

[steve86]

I wonder if those involved could read English.

You mean Québécois from Alberta?

[tinamina]

The truck hit the North end of the span as it first entered the bridge, and kept going. Maybe it was able to then center itself on the bridge, But the truck managed to make it’s way over the entire bridge leaving falling structure behind and come out on the South side.

[thackney]

Decent people ping fellow FReepers when talking about them in a public forum.

[tinamina]

Hi neighbor, I didn’t understand your reply to my comment. Maybe you were replying to someone else?

My comment:
I live in Burlington 1 mile from the bridge and I am amazed that they are routing traffic over the 536 bridge which is a much older draw bridge through downtown Mt. Vernon. Not going to be fun to go anywhere around here for quite some time.
Your reply:

They’re routing... out west via the Memorial Highway, probably via Avon Allen? That’s a MUCH longer trek.
No it isn’t! :(

Anyway, I drove around today a bit and it took me 1/2 hour to go 1 mile from my house on the East side of Burlington to the George Hopper Rd stop light. And that’s because I was turning right at that light. I bypassed half the backup by doing that.

[chris37]

Chris is my name, 37 is how old I was when I made this account.

If you want to know something about me, you can just ask me. I’m an honest person.

Sequoyah101 is not me. I post on no other account or under no other name aside from this one.

Don’t know why you have it out for me. You seem paranoid. Just because I say things you don’t agree with doesn’t mean anything other than you and I don’t see eye to eye.

A lot of people don’t agree with me, but I’m okay with that, it’s been that way my entire life, and I don’t expect it to change.

I see what I see, and I say what I say, and that’s all there is to it.

[chris37]

Thank you, thackney, I appreciate the heads up. I’m not sure what the deal is with MeganC.

[Jack Hydrazine]

That would make for a great movie scene!

[steve86]

The problem is that the oversized load was mostly in lane 1 instead of spanning the two lanes.

Correction: should have been in the left lane of southbound traffic (lane #2), not spanning the two lanes (it was apparently blocked from changing lanes, but this is the truck operator's fault for allowing this to happen). I was thinking that each direction of traffic had its own "arch".

[USNBandit]

Whatcom and a large portion of Skagit County are now without a main artery to the rest of the U.S. The truck was driven by a Canadian. Coincidence? I think not. This is it, they are coming to take all of our cheap milk and gasoline!

[USNBandit]

That money didn't go into bridges........but it did go into other projects in the local area

This is a super nice "bike path" that was built in part with stimulus funds. It goes from an indian casino in Whatcom County to the association reservation. It was built because too many people from the reservation were getting run down walking on the unlit road at night. The road is still unlit, but this bike path is equipped with solar powered lights linked together with sensors so the lights only come on as you need them.

As you can see this is much more useful than a bridge that up until last night carried 70,000 vehicles a day.

[Lexinom]

I was merely expressing incredulity that they would route west to Hwy 20 -> Avon Allen -> Memorial vs. east to Burlington Blvd.

Yes, you are going to experience hell for the short-term.

I have experienced hell since my wife abandoned me in 2011, I took a job in Texas in desperation to support her and my three children, since my car died in August, 2012 (you cannot not have a car in Texas - look at the obesity rates in that state), and in desperation I moved to the only place in the nation where one doesn't NEED a car: NYC, with my cousin with whom I'm starting a company that will eventually bring down the established order.

What's not to understand, exactly? I'm not understanding...

[Rannug]

Si. Have read more about this story, and I don’t think “Scott” is a south of the border name. :-)

[the OlLine Rebel]

I saw nothing about being STRUCTURALLY deficient, only functionally. That is completely different. Functional does NOT mean it’s “bad”, just that it may not handle today’s conditions, such as this truck being too tall.

I’m sick of all the arm-flailing, as on FOX just now, that this bridge is bad because it’s FO, then shortening that term to “obsolete”, then complaining it’s “old” and thus must be bad. 50 years is not so bad. What do these idiots want, new bridges ground-up every decade? Yes, it would be nice if they updated the structure so it could accommodate bigger things, but ALL roadways at some point have height restrictions. This is not shocking. The problem is being able to track it and enforce.

Bottom line, we get a lot of squawking that is basically safety NAZIs all over again.

[angry elephant]

From the pictures, it looked like the vehicles were sitting on some of the bridge debris, so that most of the car was underwater but the roofs were up and the survivors were sitting on the roofs of their cars.

[Ronald_Magnus]

Fortunately there is a bridge just to the east with on and off ramps close by. Still going to be a major headache for travelers, truckers, and residence in the area for a while.

[Tailback]

Good catch, I wonder what the most recent engineering rating on that bridge was from WADOT.