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(Mount Vernon, WA) -- The Interstate 5 bridge collapse into the Skagit River was caused by an oversize truck hitting the span, the Washington State Patrol chief said.
"For reasons unknown at this point in time the semi struck the overhead of the bridge causing the collapse," Batiste told an overnight news conference.
The truck made it off the bridge and the driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators.
Read more on KFI's National News Section
A forceful Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood announced at a tense press conference Thursday that David Sal Silva, whose death earlier this month raised questions about use of force by deputies, died as a result of hypertensive heart disease and was not only intoxicated but had methamphetamine and other drugs in his system at the time of his death.
A pathologist has ruled Silva’s death accidental, Youngblood said.
In addition, he said, deputies never struck Silva in the head or neck. The findings of the sheriff’s department were that three deputies struck Silva, and they hit him in areas that policy allows them to strike. Youngblood said Silva, a large man, put up a violent struggle and it took several people to take him into custody.
Youngblood also charged that there has been misinformation in the media, and that while the public has patiently waited for the investigation to unfold, the press has stirred up controversy in damaging ways. Read more at the Bakersfield Californian
