A peaceful family fishing trip turned into a heart-pounding spectacle during a wild ride down the Arkansas River.
Picture this, a massive barge, bustling highway bridge and chaos in between as a closure ensued following a collision. Let’s rewind to Saturday afternoon (March 30), when the Holland family was just minding their own business, casting their lines into the serene Arkansas River. But then, out of nowhere, disaster struck.
“I looked over at my dad and asked if it was going to hit the bridge and he was like, ‘I don’t think so,'” Dayton Holland, one of the witnesses, revealed.
In the midst of the chaos, Dayton’s dad sprang into action, ordering her brother to dial up the first responders pronto. But guess what? It did hit! The barge smashed right into the busy U.S. Highway 59 bridge near Sallisaw. Cars zooming above, panic below—total madness during the moment of impact.
“There were cars driving everywhere on the road above,” Holland recalled.
The whole incident was captured on video, instantly rocketing to viral fame. Dayton couldn’t believe her eyes. “He looked back just before it hit and he’s like yes, it is,” she exclaimed.
Officials are clueless about what caused this epic collision. However, Dayton’s brother spilled the tea that the barge was loose and cruising down the river solo. Additionally, this is the second major ship-to-bridge collision within the last month, following the fatal bridge collapse in Baltimore last March. Coincidentally, The Francis Scott Key bridge incident in Baltimore, which was fatal, also has very few, if any, known-knowns in regards to what caused the collision.
In the case here in Oklahoma City, nobody got hurt and the road closure lasted just a few measly hours while the bigwigs poked around for answers.
And on the heels of that deadly bridge debacle in Baltimore Dayton doesn’t think a coincidence of this magnitude or frequency is something to brush off.
“We had talked about that after, how similar it was,” she spilled. “But this obviously was on a much smaller scale.”
Watch the video above for additional details on the harrowing incident.