NC DOT begins bridge study after fatal plunge

RALEIGH -- The North Carolina Transportation Department is studying 17,000 bridges in hopes of preventing more deaths like the one last weekend when a man fell through a gap between bridges on a Raleigh road. The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that state Highway Administrator Terry Gibson said Monday inspectors are studying every bridge in the state with a similar gap. Thirty-three-year-old Carroll Lee Eames Jr. died Friday evening after stopping to help victims of a three-car wreck on an Interstate-440 bridge. Raleigh police say Eames jumped to avoid oncoming cars as they swerved to avoid the accident. His death was the second fatal plunge from the bridges over Crabtree Creek in four years. Gibson says DOT will search files and other reports to find out if there have been similar accidents elsewhere. (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)