De la Concorde overpass collapse (original) (raw)

The De la Concorde overpass collapse occurred at a bridge over Quebec Autoroute 19 near Montreal, Quebec, Canada, at midday on September 30, 2006. On that Saturday, around 12:30 pm, the centre section of the south lane of an overpass (65-foot or 19.8-metre section of a three-lane overpass) collapsed in Laval, a suburb of Montreal, on Boulevard de la Concorde running over Autoroute 19. The collapsed section crushed two vehicles under it, killing five people and seriously injuring six others who went over the edge while travelling on the overpass. The north-lane half, along the same bridge, did not collapse. The autoroute was closed for almost four weeks, "disabling an important north-south link between Montreal and its northern suburbs as well as the Laurentian region".