Bridge collapse site being dredged

Unusual move saved truck driver

Part of a semi-tractor rig, right, is visible in the Arkansas River.

WEBBERS FALLS, Oklahoma (CNN) -- Divers probably won't return to the murky waters of the Arkansas River until Tuesday in an attempt to recover more bodies from a bridge collapse, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. Chris West said Monday.

A dredging bucket attached to a crane was removing concrete, parts of tractor trailers and other debris that may be covering the remains still in the eastern Oklahoma river.

Additional barges and cranes were being brought to the scene to help recover submerged vehicles, and searchers were using sonar to map the riverbed, West said.

Cars and trucks plunged 62 feet into the waterway after a barge hit a section of the Interstate 40 bridge Sunday. Authorities said they expected the death toll to be at least a dozen.

Divers recovered four bodies and three vehicles from the river Monday, West said, bringing the number of bodies found to seven.

One of the victims was a woman found early Monday in a Dodge pickup brought to the surface, said West.

EMERGENCY INFO Oklahoma authorities have set up a family assistance center in Webbers Falls. The number is 918-464-2920.    TRAVEL INFORMATION The Oklahoma Department of Transportation is asking highway travelers to avoid travel in eastern Oklahoma. Those who must travel in the region are asked to use State Highway 9 or U.S. 64.    CNN NewsPass VIDEO A barge struck an Oklahoma bridge, plunging vehicles into the Arkansas River. (May 26) Play video   EXTRA INFORMATION Gallery: Bridge collapse    MORE STORIES • Bridge rescuer: 'It's pretty sickening'  • Bridge disasters in the United States  • Echoes of Sunshine Skyway tragedy    RESOURCES • CNN Access: Oklahoma governor: 'Everybody's worst nightmare'  • On the Scene: David Mattingly: Rescue turns to recovery

Authorities recovered the bodies of two women and one man Sunday.

One body has been identified and notification made to the family. West said the name would not be released until a second body in the same vehicle was identified.

The other names have not been released pending notification of relatives. Five people from vehicles were hospitalized; two had been released by Monday.

Bad weather and too much debris suspended diving efforts Monday.

"When they pulled this one vehicle out, they discovered there are some other obstacles down there that they want to think about before they approach them again," said West.

"There's two concrete slabs underneath the water. It's two portions of the roadway that fell, and they're kind of overlapping.

"The divers are explaining to us that they believe there's additional vehicles as well as victims that are beneath that rubble, and they feel like they need additional time to try to reconsider different methods to continue those recovery efforts," he said.

"It's a very arduous task. We've had a lot of rain in Oklahoma lately. The streams and the river itself is swollen. The current is very, very swift -- which, in turn, has made the water very murky," said Highway Patrol Capt. John Harris.

Harris said the vehicles underwater are "very mangled" and divers had to work in limited visibility.

Trucker: Seat belt 'saved my life'

A truck driver whose tractor-trailer plunged into the river said he did something unusual Sunday that probably saved his life.

"I had my seat belt on for the first time yesterday," Rodney Tidwell, whose face was badly cut, told reporters Monday. "The last thing I remember is going off the bridge. Everything else is a blur, just bits and pieces are coming back to me.

Tidwell's truck plunged over the collapsed bridge Monday.

Tidwell was treated at Muskogee Regional Medical Center for broken ribs and cuts. He said he was driving about 70 mph along a route he has driven many times. The seat belt "saved my life, because I fell 60-something feet."

The driver, from Ripley, Mississippi, said he doesn't remember how he got out of his truck and up to the river surface. He said he was rescued by two people in a boat.

Asked how the incident had affected him, he said: "I'm going home ... and I got three small kids. I'm going be with them a while."

Traffic rerouted

Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating said the damaged stretch of I-40 usually carries about 20,000 cars daily across the river.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation asked highway travelers to avoid travel in eastern Oklahoma. Those who must travel in the region are asked to use State Highway 9 or U.S. 64.

"The rerouting has been reasonably successful. The challenge is for us to get it repaired as quickly as possible," Keating said Monday, estimating the repair efforts could take up to six months.

Traffic is being rerouted around I-40. Officials say it could take six months to a year to repair the bridge.

"Obviously, we are going to try to do the best we can, because that is ... a major east-west connector in the middle of the country."

Ross Adkins, chief of public affairs with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Tulsa, said Monday engineers had closed water releases from dams to lower the speed of the river flow to about 10,000 cubic feet per second to aid the divers.

Pilot has no history of blackouts

George Black, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators were trying to build a timeline of events and were studying the structure of the bridge, built in 1967, looking for possible problems.

They also were studying the boat that was pushing the barge and doing extensive interviews.

The crash occurred Sunday morning when a 495-foot-by-54-foot empty barge carrying a crew of six people and traveling about 5 mph slammed into a bridge abutment as the vessel was headed north on the eastern Oklahoma stretch of the river, about 40 miles from the border with Arkansas.

The span that fell is about 600 feet long, nearly a third the length of the 1,988-foot bridge, said Bruce Taylor, chief engineer for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. He said two piers in the water were destroyed.

The pilot of the barge lost consciousness just before the accident happened, according to Joel Henderson of the Magnolia Marine transport company in Vicksburg, Mississippi, which owns the barge.

The pilot, identified as Joe Dedmon of Florence, Alabama, was undergoing legally mandated drug and alcohol tests at Muskogee Regional Medical Center.

Initial results were negative, Henderson said, adding that Dedmon did not have any known medical condition that would cause him to black out.

Dedmon has 30 years of experience as a pilot, including extensive time on the river, Henderson said.

"He's terribly distraught and shook up about the incident," Henderson said. He said the captain was still in the hospital. He said the crew of the boat were meeting Monday with NTSB officials.

"Apparently he blacked out, and at that point in time the vessel was on course," Henderson said. "If the pilot were there, he would make the appropriate corrections to take the [barge] through the navigation span."

"We're not aware of any history of seizures or blackouts," Henderson said of Dedmon.

A crew member last saw the captain about 10 minutes before the crash talking to a deckhand, Henderson said.