- WEBBERS FALLS, Okla.
(Reuters) - Rescue workers pulled the bodies of three people from mangled
cars as divers searched for several others feared drowned in vehicles that
plunged into the Arkansas River on Sunday when part of a bridge collapsed
after being struck by a barge, police said.
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- Authorities said they were working to determine the identity
of the first three confirmed victims -- two women and one man -- and expected
to pull several more vehicles from about 11 feet of water.
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- The Oklahoma Highway Patrol had estimated six to 11 people
were trapped and feared dead in their vehicles, which fell about 100 feet
into the water from the Interstate 40 bridge about 7:45 a.m. CDT, 60 miles
south of Tulsa.
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- About nine vehicles plunged into the water after the
captain of an empty oil barge apparently passed out at the controls after
suffering a seizure and slammed into an unprotected part of the bridge,
causing a 500-foot section to give way, police said.
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- Emergency workers had recovered one car, one pickup truck,
one motor home and a horse trailer with three dead horses trapped inside
from the accident site.
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- The crash cut traffic on a major east-west thoroughfare
and led to a stoppage of river traffic on Oklahoma's main inland waterway.
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- "It sounded like an explosion," a witness told
reporters. He said he was participating in a bass fishing tournament and
there were several boats in the water at the time of the crash that helped
rescue victims.
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- Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, who toured the crash site
earlier, told CNN on Sunday night there was still no confirmation on the
number of people killed.
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- "There have been divers examining those wrecks and
hopefully tomorrow morning they'll be able to get in there and find out
how many, in fact, have died."
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- "The people who survived came out right at the start.
Those who didn't make it, obviously, are still in the water," Keating
said.
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- Kevin Ward of Oklahoma's Department of Public Safety
told reporters he expected the recovery operation to last through Monday
afternoon and that most of the vehicles appeared to be concentrated in
one place in the river.
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- "I imagine they are on top of one another,"
he said.
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- 'LONG ORDEAL'
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- Four people were plucked from the river and taken to
the Muskogee Regional Medical Center where they were all in stable condition,
the hospital said. The injured were a 37-year-old man from Missouri, a
62-year-old man from Arkansas and a couple in their 60s from Oklahoma,
the hospital said.
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- The pilot of the barge, Joe Dedmon, was being treated
at a local hospital, where police said he suffered another seizure.
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- Rescue efforts were put on hold while two barges were
placed under a slab of the bridge that fell in the water to prevent the
massive structure from breaking off.
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- Dennis Johnson of the Army Corps of Engineers said he
was waiting for the Coast Guard to give the go-ahead to allow commercial
ships to use the river again.
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- "We've got a lot of agencies that are assisting
us down on the water and up on top," said police Lt. Brandon Kopepasah.
"It's going to be a long ordeal."
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- Teams of divers, helicopters, a barge with a crane and
emergency teams from across the state were dispatched to the bridge.
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- The National Transportation Safety Board and the Coast
Guard sent teams to Oklahoma City to investigate the accident.
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- A highway engineer at the site told reporters it would
likely take six months to repair the bridge.
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- The bridge carries Interstate 40, the main cross-state
route that connects Oklahoma City with Little Rock, Arkansas, and Amarillo,
Texas. The interstate was closed in both directions, the highway patrol
said.
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