Just been watching the Channel Four UK news about this, and they had someone from the main civil engineer governing body in the UK commenting on it, stating that the bridge is fairly unusualy in its construction, although there are apparently quite a few like that in the States.
More interestingly, it had footage of the local mayor commenting on the fact that the bridge in this tragedy, had been surveyed two years previously, and the report actually stated that it was 'structurally deficient', although with the caveat that it was not in danger of collapse, but needed to be observed and that it required remedial action to guarantee its structural integrity.
As someone previously stated, this is a problem with much of the US transport system's infrastructure, and the same could be said for much of the UK, where many bridges and such date back to Victorian times. In a slightly related matter, a quick trip to most railway stations in the UK will reveal that much of the cast iron structure of a lot of UK railway stations is in dire need of replacement or repair, although in recent years, this does seem to be receiving some attention, and it has actually been sorted at the train station in my home town as well as in the nearby city of Manchester.
Obviously this event is a real tragedy for any of the victims involved in the bridge collapse in the US, but equally obviously, there is no doubt that their trust in the people responsible for the upkeep of that structure has proved to be sorely misplaced, and if I was a relative of one of those killed, I'd be very, very pissed off with those who had responsibility for the bridge's upkeep.

:D Chock

The closest I can say is it was the part of town my house was in. I was between the ages of one and six. At that age ones world is very small although it doesn't seem so at the time. To give some more perspective; the bridge that collapsed hadn't been built yet when we moved to Dallas, TX in 1966.

1966! Was that before or after the wheel was invented?:rotfl:

I say put them murdering scumbags sitting on they're asses in prision on the flipping chain gangs again hacking weeds,cleaning up stuff and doing manual labor to help repair the crumbing infrastructures....under shotgun 24/7 of course....they gave up they're rights when they committed felonys...man that pisses me off about that stuff...how did my country get to where it is....we probably are waiting for China to come over here and build our stuff for us...put them and all the illegals who want to earn a modest wage or whatever to work and solve some freaking problems...if the egyptians built pyramids with slaves think of what can be done now with the actual brute force labor at our disposal.

If someone is responsible for not maintaining the bridge then i'm sure an investigation should prove it. Perhaps they will be charged with negligence which should involve a manslaughter charge.

Unfortunately I doubt that will happen.

If anyone found guilty in hindering the problem of the bridge for any personal gain, then the one should be prosecuted.

However, I've to emphasis is that, government shouldn't put civilians' lives at stake in order to save $$$. From the previous reports, we learnt that the bridge suffered mechanical failures years prior to the collapse. Had government initiated replacement / maintaince earier, the problem should be eliminated and unable to claim several lives. :up: Hope that further accidents will not pop up after learning a valuable, yet expensive lesson

Theres this lady in town who lives next to a little bridge, and shes the type a person who exagerates everything, like if a nail breaks she has to go to hospital or some such... I bet after this shes wrapping that entire bridge in duct tape.