COVINGTON, Tenn. -- The collapse of a 55-year-old bridge sent at least seven people plunging to their deaths in the raging Hatchie River, and rescue teams with jackhammers pounded through tons of rubble Sunday in the search for more victims.
A minister, his wife and their 4-year-old daughter were among those killed in Saturday night's collapse of the two-lane northbound span of the concrete bridge over U.S. Highway 51. At least four cars and a tractor-trailer rig fell 25 feet into the dark, swirling water.
By Sunday evening, divers pulled six bodies from the river and spotted another trapped in a submerged car. The death toll was expected to rise because they had not been able to see into one car to determine whether it contained any victims, officials said.
The Hatchie River, swollen by flooding rains, apparently eroded the concrete base of the bridge and caused the collapse, said Bill Moore, regional engineer for state Transportation Department.
'It undermined the foundation. That would be a logical explanation,' Moore said.
Transportation Department officials said a recent report graded 46 percent of Tennessee bridges deficient, but Moore said this bridge was thought to be structurally sound. It was last inspected in September 1987 and was due for another inspection this September.
'The state cannot replace all the old bridges it would like to,' he said. 'I think we have 10,000 bridges in the state and a number of them are old. It gets into a funding problem. We felt like the bridge was safe.'
Two 28-foot sections of the bridge collapsed at 8:15 p.m. Saturday, sending the cars and tractor-trailer rig into the water. One of the vehicles struck a bridge support in the river and caused another 28-foot slab of concrete to fall atop at least two cars, officials said.
Rescue teams were using two jackhammers and a compressor to break apart the concrete so divers could reach more victims.
A brisk current made the diving 'extremely dangerous,' said Ron Collins of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. 'It's dirty-water diving. They are doing it by feel.'
Divers recovered the bodies of three victims in one car, two in another and one in the truck, officials said.
'We have a total of six bodies recovered at this point,' said J.W. Darden, also of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. 'We are expecting more, but we don't know how many more.
'The divers believe there are more bodies. We will search all night. Anytime you add darkness to any emergency it adds another dimension of danger. But emergencies don't wait for daylight. The work will continue.'
Four of the dead had been identified. They were the Rev. Wilma Bonds, 40; his wife, Barbara, 25, and their daughter, Sophie, 4, of Henning, Tenn., just north of Covington. The truck driver was Billy Joe Herron, 49, of Ripley, Tenn.
The Hatchie River is 30 feet deep and 500 feet wide at the bridge on the Tipton-Lauderdale county line 45 miles north of Memphis, officials said. Its width is three times normal because of recent heavy rains, they said.
Moore said the accident will cause the state to step up its program of bridge inspections.
'We certainly will look at other bridges in the light of this failure,' Moore said. He said no immediate inspections were planned becase 'we're pretty much tied up on this one now.'
Dozens of rescue personnel searched the river Sunday by boats and helicopters Sunday, and the National Transportation Safety Board sent a team of investigators.
