FATAL BRIDGE COLLAPSE
(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, March 23. One man was killed and 16 of his workmates were injured when a motorway bridge being built near Maidstone, Kent, collapsed yesterday, burying the men in the rubble.
In all, 40 workmen were hurled 40 feet down among twisted steel and concrete blocks as a lOOft-long section of the bridge crashed. An ambulance driver said: “When I arrived at the bridge it was absolute chaos —scaffolding and concrete were strewn across the road, and
men were just lying about, some of them half buried.”
The bridge was one of 16 in a £4.4m contract for six miles of motorway on the A2O, the main road to London from South-East England.
The men had no warning of the disaster. The centre span suddenly began to sway, then cracked, and within seconds the metal, concrete and hardcore had collapsed and dropped 40 feet to the roadway below, taking the men with it. A number of men working under the bridge managed to escape, but the dead man was trapped below girders and wet cement. A full inquiry has been ordered.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32563, 24 March 1971, Page 21
Word Count
185FATAL BRIDGE COLLAPSE Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32563, 24 March 1971, Page 21
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