I-35 Bridge Collapse Video: Salado, Texas, Suffers Death As Minnesota Celebrates New Movie

While Minnesota may be celebrating the release of a I-35 bridge collapse video, Texas is now suffering from a similar tragedy. Reports say at least one person is dead, and several others injured, in Thursday’s I-35 bridge collapse.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, in Cincinnati the I-75 bridge collapse killed one construction worker and injured another.

Patrick Coyle plans on making the I-35 bridge collapse into a movie called The Public Domain. She remembers the aftermath of the 2007 I-35 bridge collapse very clearly.

“I was on the bridge at the exact same time it went down, one day before, and a dear friend who was crossing the bridge with her baby, on the way home from yoga, saw it go down in her rear-view mirror,” Coyle says, according to Twin Cities. “I was so very profoundly affected by it — all of us were — and I started thinking about how fragile it is that you could walk out the door one day and then your whole life can change in a second.”

Unfortunately, while the movie may be historical fiction, the reality of the I-35 bridge collapse just hit home in Salado, Texas. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, an oversize truck crashed into the support beam of the FM 2484 overpass on Thursday morning, causing two beams on the bridge to collapse and fall down onto the roadway. Three tractor trailer and two passenger cars became entrapped under the wreckage of the I-35 bridge.

Lots of emergency responders pic.twitter.com/vcW4vtWvxX

— Taylor Durden (@TaylorD_KXXV) March 26, 2015

DPS officials said 32-year-old Clark Davis of Arlington died in the I-35 bridge collapse. According to Lt. Donnie Adams with the Bell County Sheriff’s Office, three injured people were taken to Scott & White Hospital. The injuries are said to be non-life threatening, and two out of three people have already been treated and released.

Police are uncertain of the I-35 bridge collapse’s cause. It’s believed speed was not a factor in the crash, and reports say the height of oversize tractor trailer may have been a factor. Lares Trucking owner Julian Lares says his truck caused the crash but says he had a permit and did not know the I-35 bridge would not be safe for his vehicle.

“It’s a new bridge. Why don’t they construct it more high?” Lares said. “It’s a new bridge. It’s not an old bridge. Why [did] they give me, why [did] they consider the permit for such a small bridge?”

The truck’s driver, Valentin Martinez, has never been in a crash, but KVUE reports that the “Motor Carrier Safety Administration shows 20 violations in the past two years, including problems with reflectors, brakes and tires.”

[Image via KXAS]