Listen to Audio of Police Response During Collapse of I5 Skagit River Bridge In Washington

The collapse of a bridge north of Seattle Thursday night brings to mind the 35W bridge failure. Dumping people and their cars into the river, the four-lane bridge collapsed about 7pm, PST.

Early reports say a large transport truck struck the bridge minutes before the heavily-traveled structure gave way. Fortunately there were no fatalities, thanks to the quick response of emergency crews that raced to the scene.

According to an Associated Press report, eyewitnesses say several cars were half submerged;

Xavier Grospe, 62, who lives near the river, said he could see three cars with what appeared to be one person per vehicle. The vehicles were sitting still in the water, partially submerged and partly above the waterline, and the apparent drivers were sitting either on top of the vehicles or on the edge of open windows.

The social media audio site SoundCloud hosts a page entitled Alertpage, that features audio from around the US and has posted recordings of the police and fire department response in Skagit County. The audio below is from that page.