 Barges towed by tugs are a common sight on the waterways of the world, so much so they are often overlooked in the amount of damage that they can cause. An important thoroughfare across the Arkansas River would collapse from a bridge strike by two barges pushed by a tug. The disaster showed the responsibilities of such users of rivers and would result in the loss of 14 lives, 11 injured and a 580 foot section of bridge plunged into the river below. Imagine driving across a bridge only to have it collapse below you. Definitely the field of nightmares but likely something that you will never experience. However in the main morning in Webber Falls, Oklahoma, United States this very scenario would play out, putting a spotlight on the risks of waterway transport. Sadly the event would be due to an unknown health condition of the boat captain, but regardless of the cause it shows how vulnerable a bridge really can be. Scarily the collapse wasn't in the early part of the last century, but instead within living memory just over 18 years ago. Today I'm going to rate this disaster here 6 on the Patented Plain Difficult Disaster Scale. This is due to it being deadly but not having too much in regards to environmental implications or long-term health effects apart from the obvious mental trauma of the survivors of the disaster. Our story starts in 1967 with a newly constructed I-40 bridge spanning the Arkansas River near Webber Falls. The I-40 bridge is a twin girder continuous span bridge consisting of 13 concrete sections that were 7.5 inches thick, supported by steel girders and a steel superstructure that was in itself, supported by 12 reinforced concrete piers and two bridge abutments. During the construction design of the bridge considerations were not given for lateral loads caused by collisions and this was standard for the era. On the west piers 1 to 4 supported the bridge and to the east piers 5 to 12. Each pier consisted of three main sections with section 1 attached to the bridge footing with section 3 supporting the bridge span. Bridge strikes or illusions as they are known were obviously a known risk by the early 2000s. As such impact mitigation was provided in the form of reflectors and lights. These consisted of red lights and red reflectors affixed to the steel girders, marking the location of the main span piers for northern south shipping traffic. With green lights and green reflectors marking the center of the main span, the main span was between pier 4 and 5. A green boy was located 0.35 miles from the bridge marking the upbound left side of the channel. In case all that didn't help the bridge had pier protection sails on the northern approach for pier 4 and 5 only. Extra protection consisted of 10 inch by 18 inch by 89 feet long treated wood planks attached to the inside face of piers 4 and 5. These were installed in the 80s due to a number of unreported bridge strikes in the late 1970s resulting in superficial cracks in the concrete structures. The cracks were repaired with grout to prevent progression of the damage. The Robert Wylove was a diesel driven inland river tugboat operated by the river Magnolia Marine Transport Company. The vessel was built in 1955 and the twin screw tug was originally named Caroline under its first owner. She was sold in 1992 to MMT where she undertook upgrade works to her engines. Robert Wylove was 104 feet long with a width of 30 feet. She had recently had her dry dock inspection in March 2002 and was given a clean bill of health with no issues with her control equipment. In May 2002 she was pushing two barges also owned by MMT named MM60 and MM62 both built in 1999. Both were identical in size at 297.5 feet long with a width of 54 feet. They displaced 402.6 and 427.4 long tons respectively. The section of the river that the I-40 spanned was controlled by locks as it was part of the McLennan Care Arkansas River navigation system which itself formed part of the United States inland waterway system. Due to this the river had little in the form of current meaning water traffic could make easier progress throughout the network. At 3.40 in the morning of the 19th of May 2002 the tow boat Robert Wylove departed en route to Katuna. She was pushing two empty barges and on the 23rd of May the vessel and her barges entered the M-Carn system. At 18.40 on the 25th of May the alternate captain was relieved by the regular captain and took over the watch being relieved himself by the pilot at 22.45. The regular captain was 60 years old and had been in charge of the Robert Wylove since February 2001. He had over 40 years of experience through his marine career. The pilot was then relieved by the captain at 5.30 a.m. on 26th. You see the shifts on board most vessels like this are six hours long meaning six on six off. In the interest of good journalism I tried out this type of shift pattern for one of my days off and it's pretty brutal but maybe you just get used to it. At around 7 a.m. one of the crew members went to the wheel house to clean up. After completing his duties he chatted to the captain for around half an hour. The usual approach to the I-40 bridge was along the center of the river guarded by boys. GPS data collected post-event showed that the vessel followed the usual path until around here where she went off course. Would the vessel traveling at 6.7 miles per hour? The captain later told investigators that he remembered passing the boy to port and using a few degrees of left rudder to align his tow through the navigation span of the bridge. At this point he blacked out and the Robert Wylove was just four minutes away from impact. At around 7.45 a.m. the tow struck pier three about 201 feet west of the navigational channel at around a 56 degree angle. Pier three was not designed to be crash resistant. This was due to the main navigation route being between four and five. And because of this it collapsed taking the bridge span with it. The collapse damaged pier two in total over 500 feet of roadway disappeared into the river below. Some of the debris landed on the barges with the crew on board witnessing several vehicles drive off into the void. Nearby participants of a fishing tournament witnessed a mayhem and phone 911 with one of the party firing a warning flare into the sky. By now the captain have regained consciousness witnessing the incident in front of him. He sounded warning blasts on the boat whistle. In total eight passenger vehicles and three tractor semi-trailer trucks had fallen into the river or onto the collapsed portions of the bridge span. Three people who had escaped their vehicles after falling into the river had managed to get to shore with the help of the recreational boats in the area. At 7.48 a.m. the first of the emergency responders members of the local police arrived on the scene. Six ambulance responded with the first arriving at 7.56. 11 local fire departments, 10 EMS departments, eight emergency management agencies, seven state agencies and seven federal agencies would all assist. A total 58 local state and federal agencies responded to the accident. The Robert Wylove did not sustain any damage due to it being at the back of the tow. However both barges were severely damaged costing over $275,000 to repair but obviously that would be the smaller amount in terms of damage cost. The I-40 bridge damage and associated costs came to just over $30 million. The I-40 was closed for 65 days whilst repairs and reconstruction work was undertaken. The bridge was struck in an area not reinforced due to the intended traffic flow being between the fourth and fifth piers which was the structural failure point of the collapse. But what was the actual cause? The person in control of the tug had navigated the waters many times over their career and was familiar with the area. He obviously was experienced with the amount of years working in that industry which leads on to the question how did the towmate contact with the bridge? The captain of the tug reported that he'd experienced a blackout on approach to the bridge. After drug and alcohol tests showed up negative results investigators looked for any possible medical explanation. Medical experts suspected a condition called syncope which can cause a lack of blood flow to the brain. Usually in an incident like this the person would fall to the ground which would then allow blood to flow back to the brain allowing consciousness to recover quickly. In the case of the captain and the wheel house's limited space he didn't fully reach the floor instead he was supported in a crouching position leading to an extended period of unconsciousness. In a week leading up to disaster he had felt a number of periods of dizziness but had attributed it to fatigue. It was found that in the 72 hours leading up to the event the captain had a sleep debt of around 12 hours. Post accident the captain was subjected to several tests to investigate this theory with abnormal heart rhythm and clogged arteries discovered. Both can be causes of syncope. Traffic resumed on the 29th July 2002 in a record turnaround time. The NTSB recommended a bridge warning system for road users and a wheelhouse alert system for marine vehicles. Thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed the video. Would you like me to cover more bridge disasters like this? Let me know in the comments. This is a plainly difficult production. 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