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| Fri, Dec. 5, 2008 |  |
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BREAKING NEWS: 3 workers fall into river, presumed dead Wednesday, Apr 2, 2008 By Bill Lawson Stephens Media NORTH LITTLE ROCK - Three people were missing and presumed dead after a suspended platform in which they were working Wednesday morning collapsed and fell into the Arkansas River from the Interstate 430 bridge. Rescue crews from North Little Rock, Little Rock, Pulaski County and the Arkansas State Police scoured the river looking for survivors, but the work was declared a recovery effort shortly after 1 p.m. Robert Mauldin, assistant fire chief for the North Little Rock Fire Department, who was running the department's command center at the north end of the Big Dam Bridge, said the three were employed by Oscar Renda Contracting Inc. of Roanoke, Texas, and were doing work for Central Arkansas Water. Mauldin said another worker who was not on the platform had left the area, then went back to find the platform gone. Mauldin said the workers probably were tethered to the platform, a standard safety procedure in such operations, he said. Earlier reports that the men worked for an Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department contractor were incorrect, an AHTD spokesman said shortly after noon. The search began about 11 a.m. and concentrated on an area on the west side of the bridge at its north end. Efforts continued for about 90 minutes before the agencies began scaling back their resources. The water level and flow of the river are still above normal after the recent rains in Arkansas. Shortly after noon, rescue crews dragging the river with cables encountered an object "right under the bridge" that they thought might be the platform the workers were on, Mauldin said. He said that area of the river was too deep and moving too fast for divers. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was trying to arrange for a barge to lift or tow the submerged object to shallower water. ----- Arkansas News Bureau Staff Writer John Lyon contributed to this report. |
