Truck crash caused Washington state bridge collapse: officials

MOUNT VERNON: A bridge collapse that sent cars and drivers plunging into the frigid Skagit River in Washington state, raising concerns about the safety of the nation's aging infrastructure, was caused when a truck crashed into at least one girder, officials said on Friday.

The truck, after the accident, rumbled across the bridge safely before a portion of the structure collapsed, sending two vehicles and a mass of concrete and steel into the river on Thursday evening. Three people had to be rescued, officials said.

While no one was killed, the collapse of the steel truss bridge, which was built in 1955, prompted renewed calls from lawmakers in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere for greater investment in the nation's aging, and in some cases crumbling, infrastructure.

But Washington state officials said preliminary indications were that the bridge, which was inspected twice last year, was not structurally deficient and fell because of the impact from the truck striking its support beams.

"We had a collision between a very heavy vehicle traveling at probably not a small amount of speed crashing into not just one but probably multiple girders, and it failed," Washington Governor Jay Inslee told an afternoon press conference in Mount Vernon.

Officials say the bridge, 55 miles north of Seattle, was not among the spans listed by the state as "structurally deficient," which in some cases relates to bridges that cannot carry their intended traffic loads.

But the privately run National Bridge Inventory Database listed the bridge as "functionally obsolete," widely defined by public officials as not built to current standards and demands.

"Based on our inspecting, the bridge is not structurally defective," said Lynn Peterson, state secretary of transportation. "We do take hits on almost every one of our bridges. This is just bad luck where and how it was hit."

She said there were a number of bridges along Interstate 5 in Washington state that were rated lower than the bridge that collapsed.

A new bridge that suffered a similar blow would have likely reacted the same way, Washington State Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jan Katzenberger said.