Oklahoma Bridge Collapse
 

A barge on the Arkansas River slammed into a bridge along Interstate 40 near Webbers Falls, OK on Sunday morning, collapsing a 500-foot section of the bridge. Murky water and bad weather have hindered rescue workers in their recovery efforts.

Interstate 40 is a major east-west freeway across the southern and western US, and this section is expected to be closed up to 6 months.

Story from MSNBC.

This occured about 20 minutes from where I live.

When the bridge went down, there were cars that were driving across it that were going about 70 miles per hour.

It was raining extremly heavily, so drivers could barely see the road in front of them. After the bridge collapsed, no one knew that it had collapsed because of the rain, and cars driving on the interstate continued to fly off the edge of the bridge at high speed.

Pretty scary stuff.

I caught a quick interview of one of the survivors by the local news media. He was really banged up, but it wasn't his cuts and bruises that got me -- it was his eyes. He looked spooked in a bad way. All he would say was that he was going to go home now, and be with his family.

Who could have anticipated?
 

Yet some folks say there were signs....

Someone was telling me at work today that they heard something new about this story on the news recently.

Apparently there was this guy at the accident scene who went into the middle of everyone and just started ordering people around, saying he was from the army or something. I guess he was dressed up as an army officer. Anyway everyone believed him and did what he said, but apparently he was just a nutjob and the police are now looking for him.

I heard that he gained access to a laptop belonging to a victim who was actually in the army. It was a radio news blurb and I failed to find anything on the net so I figured it was bull. Creepy.

He was picked up here in Canada.

TOBERMORY, Ontario (June 10, 2002 6:12 a.m. EDT) - A man accused of impersonating an Army officer and taking control of rescue efforts after a bridge collapse in Oklahoma was arrested Sunday by Canadian police.

Ontario Provincial Police arrested William Clark, 29, of Tallapoosa, Mo., on fraud and theft charges Sunday as he waited to board a ferry in Tobermory, Canada.

Clark was wanted by the FBI for showing up in Webbers Falls, Okla., within two hours of the Interstate 40 bridge collapse over the Arkansas River, and claiming he was a captain with U.S. Special Forces.

Clark is accused of getting free food, lodging and transportation by impersonating a military officer.

He also is facing charges under the Canada Immigration Act.

He is scheduled to appear in an Owen Sound, Ontario, court Monday. Clark was released from the Central Missouri Correctional Center on Dec. 11 after serving three years for stealing, said Tim Kniest, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Corrections. Clark also served two years of probation in 1999 for passing bad checks, Kniest said.

A barge struck the bridge May 26, sending 10 vehicles into the river and killing 14 people.

Nope, apparently it's true. Looks like he even got free food and lodging out of the deal, and was giving media interviews during the incident. He was arrested last Sunday in Canada.


http://www.click2houston.com/sh/news...09-200614.html

other links

I heard a little more about this guy. He's got a long history as a con artist. One time he faked his own death to get out of a court hearing. He called his grandmother, disguised his voice, and told her he had died.