Remember when, Arkansas? It’s been 20 years since I-40 bridge collapse killed 14, including Lavaca family

Three of 14 doves released at the Webbers Falls bridge memorial fly away May 26, 2003.  Each dove symbolized a life lost the year before when a section of the Interstate 40 bridge near Webber Falls, Okla., collapsed after being struck by drifting barges.  (Democrat-Gazette file photo)
Three of 14 doves released at the Webbers Falls bridge memorial fly away May 26, 2003. Each dove symbolized a life lost the year before when a section of the Interstate 40 bridge near Webber Falls, Okla., collapsed after being struck by drifting barges. (Democrat-Gazette file photo)


During a storm on May 26, 2002, the towboat Robert Y. Love was pushing two barges when it drifted out of the shipping channel on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System in Oklahoma. The towboat captain was unconscious, his heart wrenched by abnormal rhythms.

The barges struck a pier supporting the Interstate 40 bridge at Webbers Falls, and a 580-foot section of the bridge collapsed into the river. Fourteen people died, including three Arkansans.

Anglers competing in a Jimmy Houston fishing tournament witnessed vehicle after vehicle launching off the bridge. The fishermen sped to the bridge to help survivors, but too many cars were submerged.

One year later on Memorial Day, about 300 people gathered in Webbers Falls' riverside park to witness the dedication of a memorial. The site honors the dead, the five survivors and the state and area firefighters, police officers, emergency workers and volunteers who answered the call for help.

Titled "Going Home," the memorial was built with $120,000 from the Federal Highway Administration and $30,000 in private donations. A platform with granite panels etched with the names of the dead supports a piece of girder from the bridge topped with a bronze statue of a girl releasing a dove. Behind the main platform stand five pillars for the survivors.

Family members placed single yellow roses next to the panels containing names of their loved ones. Someone leaned a stuffed toy against the panel for the youngest victim, 3-year-old Shae Johnson of Lavaca, who died with her parents, Jim and Misty Johnson.

The disaster spurred the addition of motorist warning systems along interstate bridges and construction of pier protections.

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 Gallery: 2002 bridge disaster



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