The I-40 bridge over the Arkansas River is located about a hundred miles east of Oklahoma City. Said Barton, “They just kept plunging off the bridge. “As we were running over there, we saw one truck with a horse trailer go off the east side of the bridge, then a motor home,” said Washburn. “We fired up the (boat) motor and we were there in 15 seconds.” “All I could think of was to get over there as quick as we could,” Wilhoit said. Then we realized that they were cars going down.” “I thought it had blown up and those were pieces of the bridge hitting the water. “I kept seeing splash, splash, splash,” said Barton. The crash caused a 580-foot gap to open up as the bridge collapsed into the river below. About 170 boats had taken off from the nearby river town of Webbers Falls earlier that morning.Īt 7:45 a.m., a hundred-foot tugboat pushing two 500-ton barges slammed into bridge supports on the western end of the 2,000-foot span of I-40 over the Arkansas River.
They were all fishing in a Jimmy Houston Outdoors team tournament that Sunday. I just turned to my partner and said, `I-40 just fell.'” “I knew right away what it was when I saw it happen, but I didn’t comprehend it. “I grew up here,” said Barton, who calls nearby Vian, Okla., home. When we turned around we were looking for a bad accident or something on the bridge, but it was in the process of collapsing.” “Actually, we could even feel it,” said Wilhoit, also from Harrah. “It didn’t sound like there was any metal scraping or anything like that.” “We just heard a low boom,” said Washburn, who hails from the Oklahoma City suburb of Harrah. were running south at close to 70 mph toward the same bridge. At the same time about 600 yards upriver, anglers Randy Graham and Norman Barton Jr. Oklahoma bass anglers Alton Wilhoit and Kirk Washburn had just set up camp along the bank of the Arkansas River about a hundred yards north of the Interstate 40 bridge that spans the river in eastern Oklahoma. It was 7:45 Sunday morning, May 26, Memorial Weekend. The disaster spurred the addition of motorist warning systems along interstate bridges and construction of pier protections.Bass anglers save lives following Oklahoma bridge collapse Someone leaned a stuffed toy against the panel for the youngest victim, 3-year-old Shae Johnson of Lavaca, who died with her parents, Jim and Misty Johnson. Behind the main platform stand five pillars for the survivors.įamily members placed single yellow roses next to the panels containing names of their loved ones. A platform with granite panels etched with the names of the dead supports a piece of girder from the bridge topped with a bronze statue of a girl releasing a dove. Titled "Going Home," the memorial was built with $120,000 from the Federal Highway Administration and $30,000 in private donations. The site honors the dead, the five survivors and the state and area firefighters, police officers, emergency workers and volunteers who answered the call for help.
One year later on Memorial Day, about 300 people gathered in Webbers Falls' riverside park to witness the dedication of a memorial. The fishermen sped to the bridge to help survivors, but too many cars were submerged. Fourteen people died, including three Arkansans.Īnglers competing in a Jimmy Houston fishing tournament witnessed vehicle after vehicle launching off the bridge. The barges struck a pier supporting the Interstate 40 bridge at Webbers Falls, and a 580-foot section of the bridge collapsed into the river. The towboat captain was unconscious, his heart wrenched by abnormal rhythms. Love was pushing two barges when it drifted out of the shipping channel on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System in Oklahoma. During a storm on May 26, 2002, the towboat Robert Y.
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