Combined dispatches
Racing to reach victims of a Pittsburgh bridge crash in the predawn cold, firefighters and other responders early yesterday rappelled down the side of a steep, snow-swept hillside to assist the stunned motorists. They then formed a human chain up the hill in order to take the shaken citizens to safety.
Simultaneously, rescuers pulled several persons from an articulated city bus that had lurched forward as the span collapsed, coming to a precarious rest on a tilted bridge segment.
No dangerous injuries were reported, officials said. The quick action of the first responders was credited with keeping injuries to a minimum.
The two-lane bridge collapse in Pittsburgh's East End prompted 28 rescuers to rappel some 100 to 150 feet before forming a human chain in order to rescue motorists from the hiking trail area under the Frick Park span, authorities said. A local gas company worker went door to door to urge residents to evacuate as the odor of gas filled the neighborhood.
Whiff of terror
The gas line was eventually shut off and residents allowed to return. Gas explosions have wiped out entire neighborhoods in various locales across America.
Had the span collapsed once rush hour fully commenced, the outcome would likely have been far more unpleasant, officials noted.
At least four persons required hospital treatment. Five other vehicles were also on the bridge at the time. The cause was being investigated, but crews searching under the debris for more victims came up empty-handed.
The Associated Press reports that a large crack showed on the end of the bridge where the bus landed, as if hit by an earthquake. A car landed upside down in front of the bus, which was operated by the Pittsburgh area’s transit agency.
The Forbes Avenue bridge over Fern Hollow Creek in Frick Park came down at 6:39 a.m., city officials said. The loud noise from the collapse was followed by a hissing sound and the strong, distinct odor of natural gas, witnesses said.
Frightening rumble
“The first sound was much more intense, and kind of a rumbling, which I guess was the structure, the deck hitting the ground,” said Ken Doyno, a resident who lives four houses away. “I mean, the whole house rattled at that point.”
A ruptured gas line along the bridge produced the leak, and the supply of gas was shut off within a half-hour, officials said.
By midafternoon, three adults were being treated, and all were in fair condition, according to the University of Pittsburgh Hospital System. A fourth person had received treatment and was released.
A search-and-rescue team sifted the area, with drones deployed to assist the search, according to Mayor Ed Gainey's office.
Some 10 firefighters and other responders were checked for exhaustion and frostbite from working in 18-degree weather.
The bus, operated by the Port Authority of Allegheny County, held two passengers and the driver, said a transit spokesperson.
That driver, Daryl Luciani, told WPXI-TV that as soon as he reached the bridge, he felt something was terribly wrong.
“I could just feel it,” Luciani told a reporter. “The bus was bouncing and shaking and it seems long, but it was probably less than a minute that the bus finally came to a stop, and I was just thankful that nobody on the bus was hurt.”
A welcome sight
The passengers appeared to be uninjured, he said, and so he pulled the air brake, radioed his plight and waited. First responders reached them after descending with flashlights in the predawn darkness and used a rope to help him and other occupants get to safety, Luciani said.
About two hours after the collapse, said a transit spokesman, one of the rescued passengers was riding another bus and began complaining of injuries. That person was taken to hospital. The driver and other passenger were not hurt, the spokesman said.
The bus had started its route in downtown Pittsburgh and had been heading to the suburban community of Braddock.
“Judging by the time of day, had this bus been traveling inbound, toward downtown, there likely would have been more people on the bus and obviously could have been a much, much more dire situation,” said the transit official.
The bus had seven or eight cameras, and any footage they captured of the collapse will be part of the investigation, he noted.
Neighbors said a gas company worker went door to door to get them to evacuate from the immediate vicinity before the gas was successfully shut off.
“Apart from just this abiding noise, we could begin to smell gas and that was the truly frightening thing, then with that smell we both said, let’s get dressed and get out of here,” said Lyn Krynski, whose home is nearest the bridge.
“It sounded like a weather phenomenon more than anything,” said Douglas Gwilym, who was shoveling about an inch of snow when he heard the noise. “It was all I had to compare it to — it was this odd, whooshing sound.”
'Awful, surreal,' says official
The bridge formed an important link between the Squirrel Hill and Oakland neighborhoods and is on a popular route toward downtown Pittsburgh.
At the site of the collapse, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman saw “just an awful, surreal scene,” adding, “I hope it’s a wake-up call to the nation that we need to make these infrastructure investments.” The city owns and operates the span.
The steel bridge, which was built in 1970, carries about 14,500 vehicles a day, according to a 2005 estimate located by the A.P.
A September 2019 inspection of the bridge revealed that the deck and superstructure were in poor condition, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Bridge Inventory.
A spreadsheet on the state Department of Transportation website, A.P. said, listed the bridge’s overall condition as poor, which, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, means “deterioration of primary structural elements has advanced.”
A citizen's photo shows that an important structural component of the span had rusted through.
By coincidence Joe Biden arrived in Pittsburgh yesterday to tout federal infrastructure funding.
Racing to reach victims of a Pittsburgh bridge crash in the predawn cold, firefighters and other responders early yesterday rappelled down the side of a steep, snow-swept hillside to assist the stunned motorists. They then formed a human chain up the hill in order to take the shaken citizens to safety.
Simultaneously, rescuers pulled several persons from an articulated city bus that had lurched forward as the span collapsed, coming to a precarious rest on a tilted bridge segment.
No dangerous injuries were reported, officials said. The quick action of the first responders was credited with keeping injuries to a minimum.
The two-lane bridge collapse in Pittsburgh's East End prompted 28 rescuers to rappel some 100 to 150 feet before forming a human chain in order to rescue motorists from the hiking trail area under the Frick Park span, authorities said. A local gas company worker went door to door to urge residents to evacuate as the odor of gas filled the neighborhood.
Whiff of terror
The gas line was eventually shut off and residents allowed to return. Gas explosions have wiped out entire neighborhoods in various locales across America.
Had the span collapsed once rush hour fully commenced, the outcome would likely have been far more unpleasant, officials noted.
The Associated Press reports that a large crack showed on the end of the bridge where the bus landed, as if hit by an earthquake. A car landed upside down in front of the bus, which was operated by the Pittsburgh area’s transit agency.
The Forbes Avenue bridge over Fern Hollow Creek in Frick Park came down at 6:39 a.m., city officials said. The loud noise from the collapse was followed by a hissing sound and the strong, distinct odor of natural gas, witnesses said.
Frightening rumble
“The first sound was much more intense, and kind of a rumbling, which I guess was the structure, the deck hitting the ground,” said Ken Doyno, a resident who lives four houses away. “I mean, the whole house rattled at that point.”
A ruptured gas line along the bridge produced the leak, and the supply of gas was shut off within a half-hour, officials said.
By midafternoon, three adults were being treated, and all were in fair condition, according to the University of Pittsburgh Hospital System. A fourth person had received treatment and was released.
A search-and-rescue team sifted the area, with drones deployed to assist the search, according to Mayor Ed Gainey's office.
Some 10 firefighters and other responders were checked for exhaustion and frostbite from working in 18-degree weather.
The bus, operated by the Port Authority of Allegheny County, held two passengers and the driver, said a transit spokesperson.
That driver, Daryl Luciani, told WPXI-TV that as soon as he reached the bridge, he felt something was terribly wrong.
“I could just feel it,” Luciani told a reporter. “The bus was bouncing and shaking and it seems long, but it was probably less than a minute that the bus finally came to a stop, and I was just thankful that nobody on the bus was hurt.”
A welcome sight
The passengers appeared to be uninjured, he said, and so he pulled the air brake, radioed his plight and waited. First responders reached them after descending with flashlights in the predawn darkness and used a rope to help him and other occupants get to safety, Luciani said.
About two hours after the collapse, said a transit spokesman, one of the rescued passengers was riding another bus and began complaining of injuries. That person was taken to hospital. The driver and other passenger were not hurt, the spokesman said.
The bus had started its route in downtown Pittsburgh and had been heading to the suburban community of Braddock.
“Judging by the time of day, had this bus been traveling inbound, toward downtown, there likely would have been more people on the bus and obviously could have been a much, much more dire situation,” said the transit official.
The bus had seven or eight cameras, and any footage they captured of the collapse will be part of the investigation, he noted.
Neighbors said a gas company worker went door to door to get them to evacuate from the immediate vicinity before the gas was successfully shut off.
“Apart from just this abiding noise, we could begin to smell gas and that was the truly frightening thing, then with that smell we both said, let’s get dressed and get out of here,” said Lyn Krynski, whose home is nearest the bridge.
“It sounded like a weather phenomenon more than anything,” said Douglas Gwilym, who was shoveling about an inch of snow when he heard the noise. “It was all I had to compare it to — it was this odd, whooshing sound.”
'Awful, surreal,' says official
The bridge formed an important link between the Squirrel Hill and Oakland neighborhoods and is on a popular route toward downtown Pittsburgh.
At the site of the collapse, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman saw “just an awful, surreal scene,” adding, “I hope it’s a wake-up call to the nation that we need to make these infrastructure investments.” The city owns and operates the span.
The steel bridge, which was built in 1970, carries about 14,500 vehicles a day, according to a 2005 estimate located by the A.P.
A September 2019 inspection of the bridge revealed that the deck and superstructure were in poor condition, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Bridge Inventory.
A spreadsheet on the state Department of Transportation website, A.P. said, listed the bridge’s overall condition as poor, which, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, means “deterioration of primary structural elements has advanced.”
A citizen's photo shows that an important structural component of the span had rusted through.
By coincidence Joe Biden arrived in Pittsburgh yesterday to tout federal infrastructure funding.
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