Fourth body recovered in bridge collapse

Associated Press

WEBBERS FALLS, Okla. — Divers pulled a fourth body from the underwater tangle of steel and concrete where a barge collapsed a section of a bridge, but they halted the search Monday when the threat of lightning made it too dangerous to continue.

Authorities said several vehicles remained underwater from Sunday’s collapse of the Interstate 40 bridge over the murky, swiftly flowing Arkansas River. They expected to recover more bodies as divers reached more vehicles in the water.

The dive was suspended early Monday as a thunderstorm moved into the area. Rescuers were using sonar to map the debris field and were bringing in cranes to lift chunks of the bridge and vehicles from the water.

Divers were not planning to return to the river until this morning, said Highway Patrol Lt. Chris West.

The bodies of three women and one man were recovered by Monday. At least five people escaped with injuries when a 500-foot section of the nearly 2,000-foot bridge was sheared off.

The accident occurred when Joe Dedmon, the 61-year-old pilot of a towboat pushing two barges side-by-side, apparently blacked out at the helm, said Joel Henderson, a spokesman for Magnolia Marine Transport Co., which owns the boat.

Dedmon appears to have passed out for about two minutes and was unable to steer the barges through the river channel under the bridge, Henderson said. Nobody was on hand to take the helm from him.

Preliminary tests on the captain showed he had not been using alcohol or drugs. Dedmon regained consciousness after the collision but remained hospitalized Monday pending further tests.

"He’s just terribly distraught and shook up about the incident," Henderson said.

Kay Blanford of Southerland Springs, Texas, feared two of her friends went off the bridge while hauling a trailer loaded with four race horses. Rescuers hadn’t found her friends but pulled three dead horses out of the river. Blanford was following in another car but got caught in a traffic jam.

"I’ve been trying to call them on the cell phone and they still haven’t answered," she said.