Drivers Rescued After 'Unreal' Bridge Collapse

Bridge in southern Norway was only 10 years old
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 15, 2022 6:22 PM CDT

A wooden bridge in southern Norway collapsed early Monday—and with the cause still unknown, the country's drivers are worried. Two drivers who were on the Tretten bridge at the time escaped with their lives, the BBC reports. The driver of a car that plunged into the Gudbrandsdalslaagen river was rescued after he managed to get out of the vehicle by himself, and the driver of a truck that was stuck in a near-vertical position on a section of bridge left at a steep angle by the collapse was rescued by a helicopter hours later, reports the AP.

The 500-foot bridge, made of glued laminated timber, opened 10 years ago and was inspected last year. "It is completely catastrophic, completely unreal,” local Mayor Jon Halvor Midtmageli told Dabgladet. "It is also a fairly new bridge." The bridge is destroyed, he said, "everything has fallen down.” A similar bridge in the region collapsed in 2016, injuring one driver. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration called for an independent investigation Monday, saying, “It must be safe to drive on Norwegian roads."

(More Norway stories.)

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