The barge knocked out the west side of the bridge. Capt. Clements was driving from California to Virginia, from west to east.
There was a large traffic jam at the bridge after the incident. If I understand correctly, the main detour to cross the river around the damaged bridge currently takes about sixty minutes.
Billy Clark's place of residence -Tallapoosa, Mo. - is on the eastern side of Missouri, near Tennessee. There is no way he could have driven from Tallapoosa to the other side of that bridge in Oklahoma in two hours.
"Capt. William Clark" was probably west of the bridge when the barge hit it.
Looking at a map, it's the eastbound detour that probably takes sixty minutes. The westbound detour is much shorter.