Members of First Medic Ambulance Service, Lisbon Fire Department, and Lisbon Police Department assist one of the three more seriously injured people who had been on the walking bridge in Lisbon when the south cable snapped and dumped them into the river. There were five injured in the accident.

This is the view of the bridge from the northwest corner after the collapse. The north cable is still attached and holding that side of the bridge up. It was about a 15’ drop to the river.

by Terri Kelly Barta

The  Lisbon Walking Bridge, which connects 8th Avenue west with 8th Avenue east  snapped a cable and collapsed on Wednesday, September 24, at approximately 2:05 p.m.  Five members of a paving crew from Montana were walking across the bridge when the bridge suddenly flipped them into the Sheyenne River below.

After falling an estimated 15’, two were able to get out of the water on their own, and three others fell upon rocks in the water and were extricated from the water by the fire, police,  and ambulance crews.  The water at that particular spot was reported to be approximately two feet deep, which was evident by how low the water level was on the rescue workers at the scene.

 

Two of the victims were watching the rescue of their fellow crew members and commented that they had just been walking across the bridge when it suddenly flipped them. They said they had no time to react, but just fell to the river below. They were very concerned  about the three still in the river being rescued. They declined to give their names.

Police Chief Jeanette Persons said she received a call at 2:08 p.m. from Lisbon resident Justine Nieves who was at Gordy’s Grill and Fill when the accident happened. Gordy’s is next to the bridge. Nieves said that a crew member came running into the store and said, “Call the police, the bridge collapsed”, so she called Lisbon Police Department on her cell phone. A couple of people in Gordy’s, including co-owner Kyle Flemmer, ran to the scene to help.

Chief Persons said when she arrived there were three injured people still in the river. She said Ray Durkin and some others were helping the victims. The Chief, First Medic Ambulance and the Lisbon Fire Department went down to the river to help with the rescue by stabilizing the injured and strapping them to backboards before carrying them up the riverbank to three waiting ambulances. All five were transported to Lisbon Area Health Services.

Three men were transported to Fargo, and two were treated and released, according to Police Chief Persons as the Gazette went to press on Thursday.  There were no condition reports available on any of the patients.

The paving crew was in Lisbon repaving the parking lot at Farmers Union/Cenex when the accident happened.

Don Olson, manager at Farmers Union/Cenex, said that one of his shop crew heard a loud snapping noise and went outside to check what it was. The south cable of the bridge had snapped.  Olson said that the paving business was a father/son operation from Montana and he did not have the name of the outfit in front of him.

The agencies involved at the scene were Lisbon Police, Lisbon Fire, Ransom County Sheriff, and First Medic Ambulance. The accident remains under investigation by Lisbon Police.

The cable suspension bridge was built in the 1970s and has been well-used by residents and visitors over the years. School children from the east side of town use the bridge to go to school and a few had crossed it just that morning.