Quick Facts:
- Interview transcripts with drivers released
- New photos and factual information released
- Results of full investigation will be released this summer
- 185 bridges in Washington considered "fracture critical"
Documents released Wednesday morning by the National Transportation Safety Board include vivid details from the driver of a truck carrying an oversize load that hit girders on the I-5 Skagit River Bridge last year, causing it to collapse.
“So it was just a horrendous boom and things were -- it was violent in the cab,” William Scott told the NTSB, according to a transcript included in 2,000 pages of investigative documents reviewed by KIROTV.com.
The reports include photos, interviews, inspection reports and other documents. See the documents from the NTSB here.
They are dots the NTSB will connect later this summer when issuing analysis and a probable cause of the incident.
The top of Scott’s truck slammed into support girders when Scott traveled into an outer lane on the bridge with lower clearance.
Scott said he had no indication he would hit the bridge because a height pole attached to a pilot car in front of him did not detect a problem.
He told investigators he went into the outer lane because a freight truck came up fast on the left and “squeezed” him.
“I remember the truck, the other truck, being right there, like on my window,” Scott said.
Three people in two cars plunged into the water when a section of the bridge collapsed.
No one was seriously injured.
Last month, KIRO 7 investigated what the state has done to fix 185 bridges in the state that are considered "fracture critical" -- bridges like the Skagit River Bridge that don't have any extra protection if a piece of the structure takes a direct hit.
The short answer is that nothing has been done. The state Department of Transportation said there just isn't enough money to fix or replace the bridges.
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