The wife of an Edmonton-area truck driver who police say struck part of a bridge in Washington State Thursday evening and caused it to collapse said her husband has an “impeccable” safety record in 20 years on the job.
William Scott, a 41-year-old resident of Spruce Grove, Alta., was at the wheel of a semi-truck carrying a large load of steel when he struck one of the bridge's girders, said Sgt. Kirk Rudeen, of the Washington State Patrol.
Scott made it across the four-lane span but the bridge collapsed behind him, sending the structure tumbling down 15 metres into the Skagit River. Rescuers arrived at the scene within minutes and pulled three people from the frigid water. By late Thursday, officials declared the rescue effort a success.
No one was killed, although the three people pulled from the river were taken to hospital for treatment of their injuries. All three have now been released.
Cynthia Scott, William’s wife, told CTV Edmonton Friday that her husband was “horrified” as he watched the bridge collapse behind him in his rear-view mirror.
“He is shaken up,” Cynthia said. “He was really scared for the people that had fallen off the bridge, and he was really happy to hear that they were fine and that was the real blessing. Because vehicles can be replaced, trucks can be replaced, bridges can be replaced, but people can’t.”
She said her husband has been driving a truck for 20 years and has between 10 and 15 years of “heavy haul experience.” He has won awards and bonuses for his commitment to safety.
She believes it’s “too early to say” what caused the bridge to fall, based on pictures she has seen of the collapse.
“I’ve seen pictures of the damage and the damage is so minimal,” she said. “If it hit at all, it seems physically impossible to have done any kind of damage to a structure, never mind take it down. It just seems structurally impossible.”
The bridge spanned the river along Interstate 5, about 130 kilometres south of the B.C. border. Helicopter footage suggests that the bridge fell straight down along with some of the metal supports above the bridge, creating a tangle of wreckage where the bridge met the water.
Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste said it appeared as though two semi trucks were crossing the four-lane bridge at the same time, both heading southbound, when one of them collided with part of the bridge.
"Early indications tell us we had a semi-truck southbound on Interstate 5 in the right lane, which we call lane 1. At this point, we had a semi, which was also southbound, in lane 2, the left lane. For reasons unknown at this point in time, the semi-truck struck the overhead of the bridge, causing the collapse," Batiste told reporters.
Scott works for Mullen Trucking, and company vice president Ed Scherbinski told The Associated Press that it received a Washington State permit to carry the oversized load across the bridge.
Scherbinski said the company also hired a local escort to navigate the route.
"This is what we do for a living. We pride ourselves in doing things the proper way," Scherbinski said.
The collapse cuts off the main route between Washington State and Canada. Motorists were being asked to avoid the area, said the National Transportation Safety Board.
The accident occurred just ahead of the Sasquatch Music Festival in Quincy, Wash., which attracts many Canadians each year who would normally take the highway to get there.
Dan Sligh and his wife were among those rescued from the river, along with another man. All three were hurt, though the extent of their injuries is not known.
Sligh said he and his wife were heading out on a camping trip in their pickup truck when the bridge effectively disappeared in front of them.
"I hit the brakes and we went off," Sligh told reporters from a hospital where he was being treated for his injuries.
He added the couple "saw the water approaching ... you hold on as tight as you can."
Jeremiah Thomas, a volunteer firefighter, said he was driving nearby when he glimpsed something out of the corner of his eye and turned to look.
"The bridge just went down, it crashed through the water," he told The Associated Press. "It was really surreal."
A Federal Highway Administration database listed the bridge as being "functionally obsolete," meaning that the design is outdated, likely due to factors such as having narrow shoulders and low clearance.
However, the bridge was not classified as structurally deficient.
The bridge was built in 1955 and has a sufficiency rating of 57.4 out of 100, according to federal records. That is well below the statewide average rating of 80, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data, but 759 bridges in Washington State have a lower sufficiency score.
With files from The Associated Press
