First Look: Tragedy In Minneapolis

By: Greg Kandra
Topics: First Look

Video:
First Look: Bridge Disaster

Nancy Cordes has our First Look today, with the latest on the tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis, where Katie will be anchoring the Evening News.

Click the monitor for more.

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by amerfamily August 3, 2007 12:36 PM EDT: I found it on the cbsnews.com page-- it was a Bernie Toivonen :
(CBS) As Bernie Toivonen was heading home last night, his biggest annoyance was a backup on the approach to the I-35W bridge.

"I reached %u2026 this point on the freeway, (and) there was some construction workers hand-digging a trench and the traffic was really slow up until this point here where we're at, right below the bridge," he told The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm.

Traffic sped up for a few seconds and then, Toivonen remembered, "The bridge deck collapsed and it was a point where it was almost a 45-degree angle on the bridge deck. And I knew right away it was going down.

"It just %u2014 it felt like weightlessness, you know, in the vehicle. And I went down."

He estimates his initial fall was 50 feet.

"And then I leveled out and stopped about another 40 to 50 feet behind, you know, where the deck collapsed," he said.

The accident happened so suddenly "there really wasn't a lot of time to react to
anything," he said. "When (my car) came to a stop, I checked to make sure I was OK and I was so lucky %u2014 I didn't get hurt and my vehicle really didn't get hurt either."

After recovering from his initial shock, Toivonen jumped into action and tried to get other drivers from their cars; Reply to this comment


by amerfamily August 3, 2007 2:39 AM EDT: It seems like one of the first eyewitnesses of the bridge collapse to be interviewed on the Early Show thismorning, a young man, said something about seeing a bunch of construction workers digging a trench (presumably on the side of the bridge which he was on) - that was not followed up in anyway by comment in the interview, but it did make me wonder why a bunch of men would be digging a trench just prior to a very unusual collapse. Katie, could you or someone re-check that interview and see if that really is what he said?!
Thank you so much-- I will be watching for further comments...; Reply to this comment