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SOUTH PADRE ISLAND BRIDGE COLLAPSE
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Links Newspaper Articles:
Expert witness says bridge collapse due to lack of...
Tugboat captain wont testify at bridge collapse...
Hearing over bridge accident starts today
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in South Texas bridge collapse tied to 60...
Repair of fallen bridge starts
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Perry issues disaster declaration for bridge...
Texas islands economy collapses with bridge
Unidentified body found in bridge debris
5 confirmed dead in bridge collapse
Restaurant manager feels ‘born again’ after surviving plunge off
causeway... Five dead, several missing as barges topple segments of Texas bridge From cleveland.com
Search Restarts for Bridge Collapse Victims PORT ISABEL, Tex., Sept. 17 (AP) Recovery crews resumed searching the water today for the bodies of people who may have been trapped in t... New York Times Sep 18 2001 02:30:27 GMT
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Eight people confirmed dead,
thirteen people rescued from the water. Four loaded barges crashed into the Queen Isabella Causeway (Texas' longest bridge) taking out a 240 foot section of the bridge. The Brown Water V tug and its barges crashed into one of the columns toppling two 80 foot sections of the bridge. The third 80 foot section collapsed later. Five people have been confirmed dead. Four at the time of the accident and one later that died in the hospital. Two bodies were recovered from two vehicles that were pulled from the water by crane and hoisted onto a barge. Among those killed was Port Isabel Fire Marshal Robert Harris, said Desi Najera, emergency management coordinator. Five vehicles were located in the 50-foot-deep water and divers took pictures of their license plates for identification, said Cameron County Sheriff Conrado Cantu. There could be as many as five more vehicles. Thirteen people have been rescued from the water. The barges were owned by American Commercial Lines LLC of Jeffersonville, Ind., and were being pushed by a tugboat owned by Brown Water Marine Services Inc. of Rockport The bridge will be out a couple weeks while engineers decided what to do. One short-term option, which would take about five days to implement, would be to install a portable bridge to span the 160-foot gap, Randy Dillard of TDOT said. Dillard said permanent repairs could take a month and cost $1 million. In the meantime the State has hired ferry's to get traffic back and forth to the island. Just two days before the accident meetings were held to discuss a second causway that will be built to the island. Ten million dollars has already been earmarked for the job.
Stephen Mosher, president of Brown Water Towing I, Inc.,
said in a statement that the barge struck an unmarked sand bar within the
channel that caused it to veer off course. He said navigation lights on
the causeway were not working. State troopers and
the Texas Parks and Wildlife are joining the Coast Guard in reviewing the
circumstances of the collision. Authorities say the barge went off course
by about 100 yards about 2:30 a.m. Saturday. Also, Cameron County District
Attorney Yolanda de Leon said her office will review the criminal
investigation of last weekend's causeway collapse. A preliminary investigation found the channel was adequately maintained
at least 14 feet deep. It also found the operator, a relief captain, was
not alcohol-impaired and had not been working an especially long shift,
said Coast Guard spokesman Alan Grodecki.
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