Five people were taken to the hospital after a possible collision with a pedestrian bridge in Washington, D.C., caused it to collapse onto a highway Wednesday.
The incident happened before noon when the bridge came crashing down on District of Columbia Route 295, according to an online update by D.C. Fire & EMS. At least two vehicles were struck by the bridge, including a truck that had a hazmat unit mitigating a diesel fuel leak.
During an afternoon press conference, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chris Geldart said that a preliminary investigation found that a truck most likely collided with the bridge, causing it to collapse. Investigators are not looking into whether the vehicle was too tall to clear the overpass, and officials will inspect other bridges around the route to make sure they're not damaged.
“Everything we see in the accident scene right now leads to this being a collision pulling the bridge off its mooring,” Geldart said. "We do believe this was caused by the collision."
More crashes with other vehicles were caused after the possible collision that brought down the bridge, he added.
When firefighters reached the scene, they immediately checked for entrapments. No one was found under the debris from the fallen bridge, the department said.
Five people in nearby cars were injured and taken to the hospital, Geldart said. Two other people also were injured and evaluated at the scene.
A large stretch of DC-295 is expected to be closed through Thursday night as crews continue to clear away the debris and investigators try to reconstruct the accident.
