cheapbag214s
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 Posted: Sat 22:16, 31 Aug 2013 Post subject: Dozens still in hospital after race track walkway |
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Dozens still in hospital after race track walkway collapses,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]
The Winston stock-car race was winding down,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and fans were streaming across a pedestrian bridge to the parking lot when two loud cracks could be heard above the murmur of the crowd. With the second crack, a 25-metre section of the 97-metre concrete-and-steel walkway snapped in half and fell on to the highway outside Lowe's Motor Speedway on Saturday night.
A total of 107 people received medical treatment, said track spokesman Jerry Gappens. Fifty-three remained in hospital Sunday, three in critical condition.
"It was an amazing sight; everyone disappeared,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," said Mike Aquino, 41, of Atlanta, who was treated for minor injuries. "There was a mass of people,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and then they were all gone.
"For a split second,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], I was thinking I was going to die, and then I realized I was going to live."
Piercing screams filled the humid night air as adults and children slid and tumbled to the highway five metres below in a jumble of broken concrete, coolers, sneakers and grills.
"I heard it crack the first time,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and the second time it went down,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," said Greg Southern. "It was just awful."
"All of a sudden, the bottom fell out from everybody,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," said Roger Dunham,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], who had just started across the bridge.
Steel bands in the concrete-and-steel bridge failed, said Don Idol,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], an assistant engineer with the state Department of Transportation. Exposed in the rubble,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the steel showed signs of corrosion, probably caused by moisture,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], he said.
The collapsed bridge section, still connected to the intact bridge parts, was slumped in a V-shape in the middle of the closed highway. Crews planned to remove the debris before this morning's rush hour.
"It could be a material problem,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], or it could be a construction problem,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], maybe structural fatigue,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," said Don Goins,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the state Department of Transportation's chief engineer for field operations. "We just have to look at that, and we don't know the answer yet."
The $1 million walkway was built in 1995 for pedestrian traffic only. It was inspected when it first opened, but inspections weren't required since then because it is owned by the speedway. 29 to parking lots across the way. There were no vehicles on the road when the walkway collapsed.
Races at Lowe's Motor Speedway routinely draw six-figure crowds. Track officials estimate that 180,000 people attended Saturday night's NASCAR all-star race; other events there have drawn more than 200,000 spectators.
Among the 53 people still in hospital Sunday was Dunham, who worked at the track Saturday night. He counted himself lucky,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], even though he spent Sunday being given painkillers for a back injury. He recalled his concern for a little girl who was walking in front of him when the walkway fell.
"The first thing I thought of was that little three-year-old girl who was underneath the whole pile," Dunham said. "I wanted to help people who were hurt a lot worse than I was,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], but I couldn't do much.
"All I could do was hold this guy's head who was bleeding,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]."
Dunham said he never found the girl, but learned Sunday she wasn't seriously injured.
Tragedy has struck the speedway before, including last May, when three spectators were killed by a tire that was sent spinning into the stands after a crash. A lawsuit filed by the victims' families was settled this month for an undisclosed amount.
Watch live and interact online now as the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens renew their Original Six rivalry at Bell Centre,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
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