Trauma

Case Study: I-35W Bridge Collapse

On August 1, 2007, at 6:05 p.m., an almost-2,000-foot section of a bridge on I-35W fell into the Mississippi River and onto roadways below in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The collapse killed 13 and injured 145 others. This north-south bridge connected the Minneapolis neighborhoods of Downtown East and Marcy-Holmes. Despite being under renovation, the bridge was packed with rush-hour traffic. With an estimated 100 vehicles on the bridge, the concrete and steel bridge buckled suddenly under the weight of heavy traffic. The high levels of traffic at the time of the collapse resulted in dozens of vehicles falling with the bridge and nearby individuals scrambling for safety. This type of crisis can be classified as a technical-error accident, or a breakdown in infrastructure. Such crises can cause both physical and psychological harm. The media spectacle of the bridge collapse was replayed on television news throughout the evening across the country and for days locally in Minnesota, along with the video of a school bus filled with children that had slid down the embankment as the bridge failed.

Over the course of five days following the bridge collapse, 166 questionnaires were collected from Minneapolis residents. The study examined the coping strategies of individuals and the subsequent results of those strategies. The goal of the study was to examine how people cope in the aftermath of an infrastructure breakdown and to use those results to aid recovery workers and inform emergency practitioners on how to prepare to meet the needs of the general population in such an event. The self-report questionnaire was used to address the emotional state and coping behaviors of local residents. The study found that emotional distress in the period immediately after the collapse was related to the endorsement of a number of coping strategies. Specifically, women reported experiencing higher levels of psychological distress than men and endorsed thinking and seeking information about the event more than men. Regardless of gender, thinking about the crisis was associated with a decrease in feelings of fright between the initial period after the crisis and several days after the event.

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