Bridge collapses in rural Ontario; 5 hurt

Last Updated: Saturday, November 10, 2007 | 2:33 PM ET

CBC News

Five people were injured, one of them seriously, when a bridge that was under construction collapsed Saturday near Lucknow, Ont., provincial police said.

Concrete was being poured when the whole structure collapsed.
(CBC)

Police were called around 12:30 p.m. ET to Bruce Road 86, located 200 kilometres west of Toronto, OPP Const. Dennis Harwood told CBC News.

Harwood said a construction crew of about 10 workers was on the bridge when it came down.

"The initial indication is that five of the construction workers were injured," he said.

The most seriously injured among them was airlifted to the London Health Sciences Centre. Some of the injured were taken away in private vehicles, police said.

Officials from the provincial ministry of labour were at the scene to investigate the incident.

Kincardine and District General Hospital in Kincardine, Ont., said it was treating three of the injured. A hospital staff member declined to comment on their condition.

Capt. Stephen MacPherson of the Goderich Volunteer Fire Department, who arrived at the scene shortly after the collapse, said the workers were pouring concrete on the top of the bridge when the whole structure went down.

Lucknow is located about 200 kilometres west of Toronto in southwestern Ontario.
(CBC)

"Three of them were lying in cement and one on the [cement] leveller itself," MacPherson said.

He said the two-lane bridge had been under construction for most of the summer.