The accident at John’s Bridge

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John’s Bridge

A one-lane, 260-foot-long metal and wood logging bridge that spans the channel between Churchill and Eagle lakes in northwestern Maine. Rather than guardrails, a low metal curb runs along each side.

Just before dawn Thursday, Sept. 12, 2002, 15 foreign workers, 10 from Honduras, 5 from Guatemala, left an apartment above Tracy’s Gun Shop in Caribou and headed off on their daily 90-mile commute to a woods operation in a remote section of northwestern Maine.

Traveling in a 2002 Dodge van, mostly on dirt logging roads, they traveled west, approaching John’s Bridge in T9 R13 WELS, in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, around 8 a.m.

Three-quarters of the way across the bridge, the van, allegedly traveling 60-70 mph, skidded off the roadway. The passenger side rode up on the steel curbing of the bridge before the van toppled over the edge. It overturned as it fell nearly 20 feet to the water below, and landed upside down in 15 feet of water.

Only one of the 15 occupants escaped, kicking out the back window and swimming to the shore. He flagged down passers-by who reported the accident. Divers and state police arrived by car, plane and helicopter.

The Victims

Dionisio Funez Dias

Sebastian Garcia

Jose Santos

Euceda Alexi H. Alcantara

Pablo Euceda Amaya

Juan Mundez

Sebastian Morles

Cecilio Morales

Juan Turuso

Delkin Paddia

Carlito Izaguirre

Jose S. Alvarado

Alcidez Chavez

Alberto Sales

Honduras

Population (2001)

6,626,000

Density (2001)

persons per sq mi: 152.6

Urban-rural (1999)

urban 43.7%; rural 56.3%

Age breakdown (1998)

In the United States, 34.4% of the population is 45 or older. In Honduras, on the other hand, 12.8% is 45 or older.

Sources: Britannica World data, The World Factbook, BBC