Three (construction workers) Presumed Dead After 100-foot Fall Into Arkansas River

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2008/04/02/news/040308lrbridgeacc.txt

Last updated Wednesday, April 2, 2008 9:08 PM CDT in News
By John Lyon
The Morning News

NORTH LITTLE ROCK - Three construction workers were missing and presumed dead after a suspended platform on which they were working fell 100 feet from the Interstate 430 bridge into the Arkansas River shortly before 11a.m. Wednesday, authorities said.

Rescue crews from North Little Rock, Little Rock, Pulaski County and the Arkansas State Police searched the river for survivors, but by 12:30 p.m. authorities said they had switched from rescue to recovery mode. By Wednesday evening the workers' bodies had not been recovered. Workers were using a crane to try to raise an object believed to be the platform from the river.

The workers, whose names were not immediately released, were employed by Oscar Renda Contracting of Roanoke, Texas, and were working on a water line for Central Arkansas Water, said Robert Mauldin, assistant fire chief for the North Little Rock Fire Department.

The platform was suspended from the underside of the bridge, which spans the river between Little Rock and North Little Rock. Mauldin said a fourth worker went to get some supplies, and when he returned the platform was gone, apparently having fallen into the river.

The workers may have been tethered to the platform, which weighed about 5,000 pounds, Mauldin said.

"The protocol would be to be tethered some way, but whether or not they were, we're getting conflicting reports on that, so I can't say for sure," he said.

FULL story at link.

[MidwestTransplant]

1. Not much good if they were teathered to the platform.

[emilyg]

2. Sad.