[Mr. Wyndham]

Death toll rises in US bridge disaster

At least seven people have been confirmed dead and the number is expected to rise after the collapse of a highway bridge in Minneapolis.


The bridge, which was under repair, buckled and fell into the Mississippi River, about 6:05pm local time (11.05am NZT).
Cars were crushed under huge slabs of concrete, flipped onto their roofs or thrown in the river as the 40-year-old bridge, packed with vehicles in nose-to-tail commuter traffic, collapsed with a thunderous roar.
There are "at least seven confirmed fatalities and we expect that number to go up as well," an official said.
He said at least 60 people had been taken to hospitals.
"It will be a very tragic night when it is over," Minneapolis mayor R T Ryback told a news conference.
"Obviously this is a catastrophe of historic proportions," added Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.
Dr Joseph Clifton told reporters that his hospital, Hennepin County Medical Centre, had taken in 22 injured, six of them in critical condition.
One man was dead on arrival, having drowned. "Most were blunt-type injuries, in the face and extremities," Clifton said, adding many suffered internal injuries.
The cause of the disaster was not yet known, state police said.
Governor Pawlenty said the bridge, which was built in 1967, was inspected in 2005 and 2006 and the Minnesota Department of Transportation found no structural defects.
Ryback said some 50 cars involved in the collapse had been searched by rescue workers.
Rescue boats and divers searched the water.
The state transport agency said 200,000 cars a day use the steel arch bridge.
In a similar disaster in June 1983, three people were killed when a section of bridge collapsed over a river on the I-95, the major US East Coast highway, in Connecticut.
A freight train was passing under the bridge when it collapsed, and was cut in two, WCCO television reported.
The US Department of Homeland Security in Washington quickly said there was no indication of terrorism in the disaster at this stage.
"I saw them carrying up a body - I don't know if he was alive or dead," said Andy Schwich, who arrived at the scene on his bicycle a few minutes after the collapse.
A truck was exploding in fireballs, he said, and there were numerous cars either on the remnants of the bridge or in the river.
"It was the worst thing I ever saw," Schwich, said.
Witnesses said they heard a rumbling sound as the bridge collapsed into the river.
"First I heard this huge roar," Leone Carstens, a nearby resident, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "I was at my computer. Initially I thought, Wow was that an airplane?"
Television pictures showed sections of highway leading to the bridge had also collapsed, in places crushing cars and trucks and starting fires.
One witness said she saw people trying to swim to safety.
Huge chunks of the bridge stuck at odd angles out of the river, in places surrounded by half submerged cars.
The road was carrying bumper to bumper traffic when the 152 metre steel arch bridge collapsed. The bridge, built in 1967, was 20m above the river.

Here's a helecopter video surveying the damage:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/videoplayer/107263a14936.html

This is soooo Sad. Though I can't understand how a 40-year old bridge just collapses:eek:. I mean, the Peace Bridge between Canada and New York is over 80 yrs-old, and it looks like Crap, but it's still up there