Five dead in the Minneapolis bridge collapse
New York. “The body was so mingled. I hope I will never see that again”. On the phone, Tony Webster recalled the woman he saw on Wednesday night August 1 after the Interstate highway bridge in downtown Minneapolis collapsed and dropped into the Mississippi River (photo Tony Webster). The student at nearby University of Minnesota rushed to the scene when he saw the smoke coming off the bridge. Mr Webster, 20, spoke about the cars he saw in the water and the people standing on pieces of concrete. The official death count from Wednesday evening’s collapse stood at five on Saturday as president George Bush toured the site of the accident on Saturday morning. 100 people were injured. Still criticized for the slow and sluggish response to hurricane Katrina in 2005 in New Orleans, the president lost no time and spent his Saturday in Minneapolis. First Lady Laura Bush visited the city the day before. Both could see rescue boats searching the Mississippi for bodies trapped in the water. Catherine Yankelevich, 29, was still inside her vehicle as it tumbled into the Mississippi River. “Cars started flying and I was falling and saw the water,” Yankelevich told AP. “It seemed like a movie,” she said. “I never expected anything like this to happen here.” The woman was able to climb out the driver’s side window and swim to the shore. Horrific stories of the collapse of the 40-year-old bridge have prompted finger-pointing among politicians. Elwyn Tinklenberg, who served as the state’s transportation commissioner under former Governor Jesse Ventura, said the bridge collapse is emblematic of an eroding transportation system. He added that Minnesota is underfunding transportation maintenance by a billion dollars a year. In 2001, a study by the University of Minnesota found signs of “fatigue cracking” in the bridge supports but did conclude that the span was in no immediate danger and did not need major repairs In 2005, a federal inspection of the bridge said it was “structurally deficient”. But transportation officials added that this designation did no mean that the bridge was unsafe. According to the Bush administration, it meant that portions of the bridge were scheduled for repair. Webster said that the span had been under construction for a while. Construction workers were on the way to the bridge as it collapsed on Wednesday night. The investigation into the cause of the I-35W bridge collapse is likely to be focused on vibration and fatigue cracking. Investigators will have to determine if vibration from the construction work contributed to the collapse. Minneapolis will carry the scars of that accident for a long time. Tony Webster can still hear the eerie silence that followed the collapse. “For a while, the only thing you could hear was the cracking of the fire, he concluded. People were standing on the adjacent pedestrian bridge or helping recovery efforts in silence. That was an amazing sight.” Jean-Cosme Delaloye A French version of that story will be published on August 3 2007 in 24heures and Tribune de Genève, daily papers in Switzerland. CommentsYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
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