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American Morning
Seven People in Oklahoma Confirmed Dead in Bridge Collapse
Aired May 28, 2002 - 07:09 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Seven people in Oklahoma now confirmed dead in the I-40 bridge collapse. A barge hit the bridge on Sunday, a 600-foot section of the span tumbling into the Arkansas River.
David Mattingly once again this morning in Webbers Falls, Oklahoma.
David, good morning there.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
The human faces in this tragedy are slowly beginning to emerge. Yesterday, the first of the victims was identified. He is identified as Andrew Clements, a 34-year-old U.S. soldier, who was driving cross country from California to Virginia.
Like so many others, he was just traveling on a holiday weekend, crossing a bridge that 20,000 vehicles have crossed every day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Once the busiest east-west link in this part of the country, additional barges and cranes are now being brought in to assist in the recovery operation at the now empty Interstate-40 bridge, a job that officials say is getting harder, not easier.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One good thing that's going on right now is we have got a sonar on the scene, and it's actually running back and forth across the surface. And it's mapping the bottom of the riverbed, and we are actually able to see good depictions of what it looks like, the rubble, the roadway, the vehicles.
MATTINGLY: It's believed more vehicles and victims may be under two large slabs of the bridge that collapsed Sunday morning after a support was rammed by a barge. The barge was off-course, its pilot unconscious at the wheel. The collapse happened so quickly, motorists above, like Rodney Tidwell, had no time to react.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was driving a semi coming across 40 going west, and the first thing I'll let you know, I had my seatbelt on for the first time yesterday. And the last thing I remember was going off the bridge. Everything else is a blur, just bits and pieces are coming back to me. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a semi tractor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MATTINGLY: Tidwell says his first memories after the accident were of someone in a boat, pulling him out of the water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going home, and I've got three small kids. I'm going to be with them awhile.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: Rodney Tidwell left here yesterday, one of just five survivors in this bridge tragedy. And police are continuing to receive calls from anxious families worried about overdue relatives. Police say they are welcoming these calls, because it may ultimately help them match potential victims to the vehicles they have already found under water -- Bill.
HEMMER: David, thank you -- David Mattingly, eastern Oklahoma again this morning.
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