Webber Falls bridge tragedy

Rusty

Rusty

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I know several of our forumites live near Tulsa. Is that bridge close to there? Wondering if it's impacted them or those they know. Apparently the tug captain may have had a seizure and reportedly came to only after striking the bridge?

Can anybody back there explain it to us better?
 
I've crossed that bridge many times on the way home for summer vacations. The news reports said it happened in heavy rain, and the pilot's seizure apparently turned a bad situation critical.. May and June storms in that area can bring 4" of rain in a 30-minute burst, and 50 to 70 mph winds. The state bales the grass in the median in that area, and I've seen the big, 8' round bales moving across the lanes at the speed of spooked deer, and an occasional car stopped with it's side flattened. The state patrol says they are getting calls about people enroute through the area who have not checked in, but there are still 7 to 9 cars underwater that have not been identified. My relatives west of Sallisaw have all checked in, to our relief, but there are still many waiting to hear.

Webbers Falls is roughly 145 mi. east of Oklahoma City, and 75 mi. southeast of Tulsa. Over half of the westbound traffic coming into Okla. moves on I-40, and the Tulsa travelers turn north on the Muskogee turnpike just west of the lake and river bridges.
 
Barb and me heard about it when we were about half way thru Missouri when our daughter in Phoenix called us wanting to know if the bridge was on our route and thankfully we were headed North and East instead of to maybe Mississippi.
All we knew at the time was that the bridge had collapsed, not that a barge had hit it.
What was worrying Barb and me was that just the week before a bridge on the Broken Arrow Expressway that was due for tear down collapsed prematurely when the crane they were using on it fell through just not long ago, maybe a couple of weeks.
Thankfully the street dept had already closed Memorial Avenue, one of the busiest streets in the city.
There's been a huge flap in the Oklahoma State Government about the safety of Oklahoma's bridges. It seems that there are more than just a few that need either extensive repair or rebuilding.

Oklahoma Congress is a bunch of idiots anyway. One year they had to call an emergency session because of a bill that was rushed thru. It provided a way for the woman in a marriage to take everything a man owned except his underwear, Literally!!!!
One of the members of the Okie Congress was said to have said, "We had to call an emergency session because if my wife had of heard of this law before we repealed it I would have had only my underwear by the end of the 1st week it was in force."
Hell, it would have served him right as that's all the little man is left with anyway after the Okie Court Systtem gets done with him.
 
Bro, the Okla. legislature and courts are bad enough, but you left out the many county commissioners who register for re-election the same week they are released from prison.....usualy for embezzlement of county funds. One in Tulsa Co. in the '50s claimed he needed the job to make restitution....it was the only job available that offered enough cash-on-hand to allow him to steal enough to replace what he had stolen.
 
Thanks for the info, Yvsa. I will continue to hope that nobody on the forum is touched by a loss from what happened. And continue to feel badly for those who have people missing, hoping against hope there's some other explanation.

For the sake of the tug captain's sanity I hope they find eeg or other evidence that his passing out was without warning and without obvious precursors. Can you imagine how he must feel if that's indeed what happened?
 
Bro, the Okla. legislature and courts are bad enough, but you left out the many county commissioners who register for re-election the same week they are released from prison.....
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Didn't forget Bro, just can only say so much about Okie Gubbiment without having a complete breakdown of senses.
I know you know what I mean.
Frank Keating is another huge joke played on the Okie people and I'm damned glad I didn't vote for him. His receipt of a large monentary gift is what kept him out of Bush's cabinet and I'm sorta thankful of that. May the God(s) help us if Keating is ever elected to any importaant federal gubbiment post!!!!!!

Thanks for the info, Yvsa. I will continue to hope that nobody on the forum is touched by a loss from what happened. And continue to feel badly for those who have people missing, hoping against hope there's some other explanation.
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Bro I totally agree with all you said!!!! It's been a joke for as long as I can remember about the Okie Gubbiment being the biggest thieves outside the prisons than anywhere else in the world.
Oklahoma has almost the lowest paid teachers in the USA and almost, if not, the worst roads as well.
Many other states have less taxes than Oklahoma and still have better roads and their teachers are well paid.
What does all this have to do with the tragedy?
Well for one thing IIRC all of the bridges along the way to the inland Port of Catoosa were supposed to be able to withstand more of a collision than what a couple of empty barges and a tugboat
caused.
I have a feeling that whatever the outcome of this tragedy the whole thing will be gently swept under the rug after the bridges are repaired unless the Feds get involved which they might seeing as how Federaal Fund's helped to build the interstate.
I feel for everyone connected with this tragedy and especially the divers and others connected to bringing up the victims and the victims family's.
One of the ones interviewed mentioned that the river was strewn with diapers, car seats for children and the like.:(
One of the ones rescued said something like he tried to stop because he saw the truck in front of him just disappear and that was the last thing he remembered.
I think it was 5 people who should feel very blessed to have lived thru such an ordeal.
 
OK. Here's the crazy part = the rescue units arrive and what's the first thing they do? They spend hours "stabilizing the bridge". Then they finally decided to "send in divers" to check for survivors.

I understand the bit about wanting to prevent further tragedy, but that water was only 11' deep. Couldn't they have had even just one diver out there checking cars?

Also, at 11' deep, why didn't more people crawl out of their vehicles?

I'm confused, disappointed, and disheartened because of this.
 
I grew up in northeast Oklahoma, about 65 miles east of where Yvsa lives. I remember one of our more memorable county commissioner races...

The incumbent and the challenger didn't have much use for one another, and got into a heated argument one day. The challenger was sitting in his pickup truck, and the incumbent was standing right outside it, yelling through the window.

Tempers flared to the point that the incumbent, feeling that words alone could no longer fully express the intensity of his feelings, reached down and picked up a flint rock about the size of a grapefruit that he felt would enable him to more eloquently make his point. This was not a wise move, tactically speaking, because his political opponent had his old sixgun with him.

Before said incumbent could bounce the rock off his head, the man in the truck (who was an old coon hunting buddy of mine, by the way) promptly shot him in the elbow, spoiling his aim, and incidentally, spoiling his arm also.

There was a little flap over it, but nothing much ever came of the shooting as it was considered self-defense. You'd have a hard time finding a jury member in Oklahoma, at least that part of Oklahoma, who hasn't either been hit by a rock , or knows someone who has, and we are a sympathetic culture.

In the election, we elected the challenger by a strong margin, on the logic that anybody dumb enough to pack a rock to a gunfight is too dumb to grade our roads. Now I had nothing against the rock-throwing incumbent...he was a friend of my granddads and let me hunt on his ranch. But we were a politically savvy bunch of people, and had certain standards we demanded in our elected officials. :)
 
:(

What a horrible tragedy:(

Makes me think its time I bought two of those window smasher tool type things that you're sposed to keep strapped within arms reach, and easily detachable so you can smash window out AND cut your seat belt all with one tool. Need to get one for my truck and the wife's. ASAP!! AND practice using it!

NOTE: this is NOT, I repeat NOT to criticize the people who died in this horrible accident in any way, nor to second guess their actions in any way!!! I'm sure there was nothing they could have done that they didn't do to get out of those cars.

:( Hope they nail some asses to the wall if this turns out to be the result of negligence or corruption :mad: If it were my wife and daughter that died and I found out it was the above, those responsible would be LUCKY to be put in prison so I couldn't find them and take em on a little camping trip....
 
Pen:

Understand your feelings, and there is a lot we don't know yet. A couple of my younger cousins are certified divers, from near Shawnee (not far west of the tragedy) and went to Webbers Falls ready to work the site. They said (this via their father) that the visibility was less than zero underwater, and the current was too strong to "free-dive" without a tether line. The weather was moving in, again, and the winds were beginning to shake the ends of the dropped span that were still attached to the standing supports - the divers were pulled out until the lock and dam system could reduce the current in the channel, which is deeper than the 11' at the sides, and draws heavily on the shallower edges.
With all of our blather about the politics which might have had an effect on the situation, the rescue people are still Okies, tough as nails and hardheaded enough to walk into anything to make a save. When they call a halt, there just isn't any other way in.
 
Things happen. There's going to be some detours for a time looks like. Oil money (or any kind for that matter) always seems to drive local governments down certain roads that look pretty much the same to me regardless of geographic location.

Interestingly, a few forumites use a khukuri for the window smasher, belt cutter, tool you mentioned, Rob. And a few highway patrolmen carry them for the same use among others.
 
Interestingly, a few forumites use a khukuri for the window smasher, belt cutter, tool you mentioned, Rob. And a few highway patrolmen carry them for the same use among others
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They ought to know what would work best I suppose:) I don't know about using it for cutting a belt off of yourself though? Doesn't sound too doable for me. The gizmo I'm talking about has a slot built into it that holds a heavy duty razor blade cutter--the slot holds the belt still while the blade pulls through it.

What do you all think? Khuk work for cutting a belt off yourself while strapped in and sinking?

I have a feeling that the highway patrolmen are planning on using it for rescuing others from their vehicles, which would be easier IMO than trying to unheath a khuk while belted in and sinking.
 
A lot of folks are going to have a hard time keeping calm and doing the required things while belted in and sinking regardless of tool choice. Bad scene.
 
What most people aren't aware of is that our Oklahoma Turnpike's have a 75 mph speed limit, makes up for the toll one has to pay.
Flying off the end of a busted bridge even at 75 mph or even lessor speeds from a heigth of 65 to 75 foot and hitting the water is probably more than enough force of impact to knock the average person unconcious.
Those poor people probably didn't have time to yell, "DON'T" before hitting the water or at least I hope so, in hopeing they didn't feel any pain.
I think an object falls at the rate of 32 feet per second per second so 65 feet would increase the rate of speed considerable let alone adding the effects of the vehicle's speed. Hitting the water had to have been worse than hitting a brick wall at those speeds!!!!
I'm very surprised that anyone survived!!!!!!!
 
...Yeah, The guy they showed on the news here as a survivor had lacerations to the head, mild concussion, and multiple fractured ribs....and he was wearing a seatbelt! If the average speed was 75mph, and you accelerate more for faling, you hit water, which would be like hitting a brick wall at 100mph...Ominous physics.
Add the strong current and the fight to the surface, and your average navy seal might have a challenge on his hands, and he is trained and prepared for such an evantuality as a helo going into the drink.

Condolences to all who must endure the ripples of this tragedy.

Keith
 
It has been several years since I traveled that stretch of I-40, but I was surprised they had raised the limit to 75 mph. Every time I was through there, only the people with a Holstein on their tail (tell them what that means, Bro :D) were doing less than 85.
 
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