(The following article by John Trumbo was posted on the Tri-Cities Herald website on February 6.)
KENNEWICK, Wash. — Union Pacific workers struggled to secure a piece of motorized track equipment Monday night as it dangled from a bridge over the Columbia River.
The truck-sized rig was being driven from Burbank to Finley across the bridge about 3 p.m. when the center section of the bridge started to open.
Bob Gear, chief of the Benton Fire District 1, said the fire district wasn’t notified of the incident until about 5 p.m. The driver saved himself from serious injury by leaping from the moving equipment, which trundled across the bridge until it reached the chasm and tipped over. A hydraulic operated arm, or boom, on the rig caught on the bridge, preventing the rig from falling into the river, Gear said.
“It is just hanging there under the bridge and the motor is still running,” Gear said.
Gear said he called for Columbia Dive Rescue to put two boats with rescue crews in the water near the bridge just in case any of the railroad workers slipped into the water. The accident occurred near one of the bridge piers about 100 yards north of the Finley end of the bridge.
Workers were concerned that if the rig’s running motor stops, then the hydraulics would fail and the mechanical arm would give way, dropping the rig into the water.
About 50 gallons of hydraulic fluid already had leaked out about 6 p.m., Gear said.
Gear said the rig’s driver was taken to the hospital but his condition was not known.