Last night's bridge collapse in Washington? Caused by an oversized truck.

shortformblog:

The Washington State Patrol said the truck driver works for Mullen Trucking in Alberta. The tractor-trailer was hauling a housing for drilling equipment Vancouver, Wash., when the top right front corner of the load struck several trusses on the north end of the bridge, the patrol said.

Motorist Dan Sligh saw it happen.

“He hit the bridge about 3 or 4 feet wider than the actual bridge was, and we went right off with the bridge as it collapsed,” Sligh told reporters from a hospital.

The driver, William Scott, of Spruce Grove, Alberta, near Edmonton, voluntarily gave a blood sample for an alcohol test and was not arrested. A top company official said Scott was amazed by what he saw happen.

“He’s a little bit bewildered,” Ed Scherbinski, vice president of Mullen Trucking, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “He looks in the (rearview) mirror and the bridge is coming down behind him.”

And that’s why you don’t drive oversized trucks through undersized bridges.

There were only minor injuries in the collapse, fortunately.