WEBBERS FALLS, Okla. — A barge hit an interstate bridge over the Arkansas River during a storm Sunday, collapsing a 500-foot section of roadway and sending more than a dozen vehicles plunging into the water with people trapped inside, authorities said.
Officials expected to find five to12 bodies in the submerged vehicles once the area was safe for divers to begin searching. Cranes were working to stabilize the remaining bridge sections Sunday afternoon, said Rebecca Smith, a spokeswoman for Muskogee County Emergency Management Services.
"We haven't recovered any of the bodies, but there are going to be fatalities," said Lt. Chris West of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
At least five people were hospitalized, including some rescued by the boatmen who alerted authorities to the bridge collapse shortly before 8 a.m.
Gov. Frank Keating, who visited the area Sunday afternoon, said the captain of the barge may have had a seizure and blacked out just before the barge rammed a column supporting the bridge. He said the captain was being examined at an area hospital. It wasn't clear whether the storm and fast-moving river water contributed to the crash.
Josef Blann, a diver with the Marine Corps Reserve said authorities believed 15 vehicles went into the river, including 12 cars, two tractor-trailer rigs and a horse trailer. It wasn't clear whether the storm and fast-moving river water contributed to the barge's crash.
Rescue crews in boats moved along the river Sunday afternoon, picking up floating pieces of car seats, clothing and diapers. Huge slabs of concrete where the west side of the bridge gave way slumped in the water close to the river's edge.
A pickup truck rested on top of one section of collapsed concrete at the west end of the bridge, which rested on the embankment. The driver had slammed on his brakes when he noticed the bridge was gone, authorities said.
Both eastbound and westbound sections of the Interstate 40 bridge, about 75 feet above the Arkansas River, collapsed, pinning the barge beneath it.
Shane Guthrie, personnel manager for Magnolia Marine Transport Co. in Vicksburg, Miss., said the company's 104-foot-long tugboat, the Robert Y. Love, was pushing two barges when the accident occurred. None of the seven crew members was injured, officials said.
A second nearby bridge also was hit Sunday morning but was still being used, although one of its pillars was damaged, Webbers Falls Mayor Jewell Horne said. It wasn't clear if the same barge hit both bridges.
Both bridges are about 100 miles east of Oklahoma City and about 35 miles west of the Arkansas state line.
Four people injured in the collapse were being treated Sunday at Muskogee Regional Hospital, all in stable condition, administrator Ched Wetz said. A fifth person was taken to Sequoyah Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
"One gentleman said he was driving and all of a sudden there was nothing under him," Wetz said. "He doesn't remember how he got out of his vehicle. He probably swam out, but he simply doesn't remember."
The I-40 bridge normally has heavy traffic, said Highway Patrol Sgt. Jarrett Johnson.
"There are probably thousands of cars that travel over this bridge every day," he said. "It's the main interstate that travels east and west through the state of Oklahoma."