Van Carrying Migrant Workers Goes Off Bridge in Maine

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September 12, 2002

Van Carrying Migrant Workers Goes Off Bridge in Maine

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 11:45 a.m. ET

ALLAGASH, Maine (AP) -- A van carrying migrant workers went off a one-lane

bridge into a river in the northern Maine wilderness early Thursday, and about a

dozen people were presumed drowned, state police said.

At least one person survived the crash into the Allagash Wilderness Waterway,

but 12 or 13 others were unaccounted for, said McCausland, spokesman for

the Maine Department of Public Safety.

The survivor, who spoke Spanish, was part of a crew hired to clear land for

Seven Islands Land Co., a land management company, McCausland said.

The accident happened on 's Bridge, a one-lane wooden bridge with no

railings between Eagle and Churchill lakes, about 25 miles east of the Canadian

border. State police divers had to use float planes to reach the remote site.

A high wind advisory was in effect at the time of the accident, according to the

National Weather Service. The advisory urged motorists, especially those in

high-profile vehicles, to proceed with caution because of wind gusts approaching

45 mph.

The Allagash Wilderness Waterway is a 92-mile state-administered wild river

popular with canoeists.