That Washington State I-5 Bridge Collapse last year? Talking on the cellphone is partially to blame.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I'm on a few National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) listservs. This is a federal thing, so I can go over four paragraphs.

SERIES OF DEFICIENCIES LED TO COLLAPSE OF WASHINGTON STATE BRIDGE, NTSB SAYS

July 15, 2014

WASHINGTON – The collapse of an interstate highway bridge that was struck by a truck carrying an oversize load was ultimately caused by a series of deficiencies in a system intended to safeguard the passage of oversized loads over Washington State’s roadways, the National Transportation Safety Board determined in a meeting today.

On May 23, 2013, at about 7:05 p.m. PDT, a heavy truck operated by the Canadian firm of Mullen Trucking LP, was traveling southbound on Interstate 5 when the oversize load it was carrying struck the top of a bridge spanning the Skagit River near Mt. Vernon, Wash. Seconds later, the damage caused a span of the bridge to collapse. Two passenger vehicles and a camper-trailer fell into the river, and two other vehicles were damaged. None of the eight vehicle occupants involved in the bridge collapse was seriously injured.

The deficiencies cited by the NTSB included the failure of the driver of the pilot/escort vehicle to perform basic safety functions, inadequate route planning by the trucking company, Washington State’s inadequate permitting process, and the lack of low-clearance warning signs for the bridge.

Mullen Trucking LP had hired another company, G&T Crawlers, to operate a pilot/escort vehicle as required by state law for the trip from the Canadian border to the truck’s destination, the port of Vancouver, Wash. The truck followed the pilot/escort vehicle, which was equipped with a height pole intended to verify clearance from obstructions for the oversize load.

In the 30 minutes leading up to the accident, the driver of the pilot vehicle had used a hands-free mobile phone to engage in five calls, including the one that she was on when the truck struck the bridge. An off-duty commercial truck driver traveling near the pilot vehicle said he saw the height pole strike four or five bridge elements.

The pilot vehicle driver said that she did not observe the height pole contact the bridge structure as she was passing under it. NTSB investigators were unable to conclusively determine if the pole contacted any part of the bridge structure, but did conclude that the driver’s use of the cell phone distracted her and “diminished her ability to recognize whether the height pole struck the bridge.” ....
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A synopsis of the NTSB report, including probable cause, findings, and a complete list of the safety recommendations, is available at http://go.usa.gov/Xugm.

The full report will be available in several weeks.

Washington State I-5 Bridge Collapse

[mbperrin]

1. Attention does matter.

Why people act otherwise, I cannot know.