A Brief History
On May 26, 2002, Interstate highway I-40 in Oklahoma was the scene of a disaster when barges towed on the Arkansas River struck a support pier on a bridge, crashing it to the water and killing 14 people. Another 11 people were injured in the wreck.
Digging Deeper
The captain of the towboat pulling the barges suffered a fainting spell, leading to the accident. Eight passenger cars and three semi-trucks fell into the water. Some other major Interstate highway disasters include:
A church bus on I-71 in Kentucky was struck head on by a drunk driver in 1988, killing 27 of the 67 people on the bus, 24 of them children.
A dust storm was the culprit in 1991 on I-5 in California, causing a 104 vehicle wreck, killing 17 and injuring 150.
In 2002, on I-710 in California, dense fog resulted in a 216 vehicle pile-up, the biggest in US history, although no one was killed.
Question for students (and subscribers): Have you survived an Interstate Highway disaster? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Lewis, Tom. Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life. University Press Audiobooks, 2017.
Wirkus, Jennifer and Eugene Wirkus. History of Interstate Highways: Rediscover & Explore: A Reading and Discussion Program. Independently published, 2020.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by of the collapsed section of the Interstate 40 bridge, May 31, 2002, has been released into the public domain worldwide by the copyright holder of this work.
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