WILLMATHSVILLE, Mo.- A Memphis woman escaped serious injury when the bridge she was driving across collapsed.

Lisa Doster told KMEM News that she was traveling home from Columbia on Route A just west of Willmathsville around 4pm Sunday afternoon in her Vollkswagon SUV when the incident occurred.  Doster said that as she entered the bridge she began to feel, what she described in her words, as “a roller-coaster effect”.  She said that as she continued to cross the bridge, she felt her vehicle seemingly float then fall, before launching upward before landing hard on the pavement. 

She said that after talking to a trooper who responded to the scene, they believe that the bridge began to give way underneath her car as she entered the bridge, then as she got close to the eastern end of the bridge, the middle gave out, causing her to feel the floating sensation momentarily.  Then her SUV returned to the pavement and was essentially launched into the air as it vaulted over the third break that occurred on the eastern end of the bridge just as she got to it.  Doster reported her SUV being launched airborne as she exited the bridge before landing hard on the pavement beyond the bridge.  She reported nearly losing control of her vehicle upon landing but was fortunate to save it.

A spokesman for MoDOT said Sunday evening that they are looking into the incident.

 

 

The bridge just west of Willmathsville on Route A collapsed just as a Memphis woman was crossing it.

(Top photo courtesy of Ryan Burkholder.  Center and bottom photo courtesy of Lisa Doster)

 

Video Courtesy Lisa Doster