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CNN Live At Daybreak

Crews at Site of Oklahoma Bridge Collapse Bring in New Equipment

Aired May 28, 2002 - 06:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Crews at the site of the Oklahoma bridge collapse have brought in new equipment to help in the recovery operation. CNN's Sean Callebs is in Webber Falls, Oklahoma.

Good morning, Sean. What's going on there now?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in a matter of hours, the divers are scheduled to go back into the Arkansas River to resume their work. Recovery work had to be postponed yesterday, because of stormy weather and debris racing downstream that created dangerous conditions for the workers.

Now, at the same time, the investigators are also trying to determine why that barge captain passed out at the wheel, apparently triggering this accident.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS (voice-over): The calm surface of the Arkansas River doesn't begin to tell the whole story. Recovery crews say hidden beneath the water is a mess of concrete, twisted steel and a number of destroyed vehicles. Among those lucky enough to come away from the collapsed section of the bridge, Rodney Tidwell, a tractor-trailer driver.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last thing I remember was going off the bridge. Everything else is a blur, and just bits and pieces are coming back to me.

CALLEBS: Five people plunged off the bridge and escaped with their lives, but at least seven others died. The 35-year-old span of interstate fell, when a barge struck a concrete support while traveling upstream.

Authorities say the captain, 61-year-old Joe Dedmon, apparently passed out at the helm. Police say Dedmon was clean, no traces of drugs or alcohol in his system. Dedmon's employer says the captain is emotionally devastated.

The bridge passed inspection a year ago. The state highway department is trying to determine if there was anything wrong with the structure. Meanwhile, divers are probing the river bottom with their hands, because the water is so murky. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I don't want to forget these workers are done there. We need to remember them. We need to be praying for these people. They've got a tremendous job ahead of them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: Authorities are just now beginning to identify the victims. The first, 35-year-old Andrew Clements, a U.S. Army soldier driving across country from California to Virginia, who had the horrible misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Sean, do we know if the pilot of that barge had any existing medical conditions, like diabetes or epilepsy or something like that?

CALLEBS: Like all riverboat captains, he had to undergo a certain degree of medical testing before he was allowed behind the wheel, and he apparently had no history, any kind of medical history that would have led anyone to believe that he could have passed out behind the wheel at the helm, then slamming into that concrete structure.

So at this point, the simple answer is, no, he did not have any kind of pre-existing condition that anyone knew of.

COSTELLO: So he just had this seizure and then after the barge hit the bridge, he woke up. It's just...

CALLEBS: He apparently was out for a matter of minutes. I have read various accounts of this, anywhere from two to 10 minutes, and there was no one else in the bridge at the time of the accident, so that certainly didn't help the situation either.

COSTELLO: And the cars falling off the bridge, the people inside those cars probably died of the impact of the cars hitting the water, right?

CALLEBS: Well, it's very difficult to tell, because right now, they are just beginning to pull the victims out. The coroner and others involved in that part of the investigation have been pretty tight with details. But the amazing thing, think about the five people that plunged more than 60 feet off the bridge into that river, a horrifying experience, and then being able to walk away from it, or at least come away from it with their lives -- just amazing.

COSTELLO: You certainly have that right. Thank you -- Sean Callebs reporting live for us this morning.

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