Recovery Efforts Continue Near Bridge Collapse
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Tragedy is marking this Memorial Day in Oklahoma, the site of a deadly bridge collapse. We started this hour with some breaking news out of there. You heard a remarkable story of survival. Vehicles plunged off the fallen I-40 bridge and into the Arkansas River in Webbers Fall. Our Dave Mattingly is there live and he has more on today's recovery efforts. Dave, what are rescuers saying about how many people they are going to be able to save out of that river, if any? Or if the death toll is expected to rise now?</s>DAVE MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, very early on yesterday they realized that they were not going to find more people alive in that water. And today it is strictly a recovery operation and not a rescue operation. And today the NTSB is scrutinizing every aspect of this disaster. Not only are investigators examining how and how long the barge captain lost consciousness before the barge hit the I-40 bridge, they're also looking at the bridge itself. It was part of the original construction of I-40 erected back in 1967. The question here, should the bridge have been able to withstand the barge collision or was there something wrong with its design or structural integrity that contributed to the collapse?</s>GEORGE BLACK, NTSB BOARD MEMBER: I would like to know and I think what the investigation and everyone would like to know, is what course of events led this barge into this bridge support. So that is obviously the thing that we're most interested in. And we're interested in talking to the people who can help us understand that. And that's what we're trying to do today.</s>MATTINGLY: Within last hour and a half another car has been pulled out of water. There was one more victim inside that car. The death toll on this holiday weekend tragedy now spans at four. But, Carol, as you were talking about earlier, perhaps we're not paying enough attention to fact that five people miraculously survived that 100-foot plunge into the river, and the fact that we had one of those people already out of the hospital here talking to reporters, is just really absolutely remarkable in my book -- back to you.</s>LIN: Yeah, a lucky man, Dave, indeed. He was saying it was the first day he had ever worn his seat belt, and a good day do that indeed. Thank you so much, Dave Mattingly, reporting live there from Webbers Fall, Oklahoma.