Dan Sligh thought that he had reached the end of his life when he and his wife plunged into the Skagit River after an Interstate 5 bridge collapsed in Washington state.
The married couple was driving over the bridge when the 58-year-old structured collapsed about 60 miles north of Seattle. As a result, their car and two other motorists found themselves waist-deep in water when the freeway crumbled, Sligh told NBC affiliate KING5 of Seattle.
Sligh, a Navy veteran, added that the accident was "like a Hollywood movie unfolding in front of your eyes, up close and personal."
State officials have determined that the bridge, which enacts as a major thoroughfare between Seattle and Canada, fell after it was clipped by an oversized tractor-trailer truck around 7 p.m. on Thursday.
"He hit the bridge about 3 or 4 feet wider than the actual bridge was, and we went right off with the bridge as it collapsed," said Sligh according to CBS News.
A few moments later, Sligh and his wife fell into the icy waters. "You just hold on as tight as you can," he told KING5.
Mr. Sligh dislocated his shoulder while his wife was knocked unconscious. He managed to keep her head above water until rescue crews arrived in boats an hour later.
Two other vehicles also went into the water about 25 feet below as the structure crumbled. Three people were rescued and were recovering on Friday.
It could take weeks for the bridge spanning the Skagit River on Washington State's major north-south artery to be repaired, said officials.
It also raised new questions about the state of the nation's infrastructure. On Washington State's list of structurally deficient bridges, it was deemed "functionally obsolete."
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