Skip to Content
Everything Else

Breaking News: Belle Isle Bridge is (not) falling down (yet)

5:14 PM EDT on June 1, 2016

Earlier today, KOCO Channel 5 shared some terrifying news on social media that "a large piece of concrete" fell off the Belle Isle Bridge. The notification immediately got the attention of all those people who like and share Facebook posts without actually reading more than the headline, like TLO's own FNITBT Maester Adam Holt:

koco large peice of concrete

Wow. A large piece of concrete fell off an Oklahoma bridge. That's impossible! Thanks to the leadership of our Governor and Legislature, Oklahoma has some of the best roads and bridges in the country. How could something go wrong with one? It must be the work of ISIS, Draymond Green or Barack Obama.

Let's check out the story to see exactly how large the piece of concrete is, and if there were any injuries:

OHP responds to report of concrete falling off Belle Isle Bridge

Authorities are responding to reports of a large piece of concrete that has fallen off the Belle Isle Bridge onto the road below.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol has responded to the scene and did not find significant damage.

ODOT says they are not responding to the bridge, but did respond to a crash on the bridge earlier on Wednesday. There was no structural damage after that crash, according to ODOT.

It's unclear if any roads are currently closed. No injuries have been reported.

Stay with KOCO.com for breaking news updates.

Oh. That's interesting. OHP responded to the scene and didn't find any damage. Also, ODOT isn't even responding. It kind of makes you wonder how large this piece of concrete was, or if it even existed. Maybe it was just a deadly copperhead snake?

I guess the other logical question here is why KOCO ran the report and used such a misleading headline on Facebook. With the memory of the May Ave. bridge collapse fresh on our minds, it's almost like they figured it was more important to rush the news and get easy website page views instead of waiting to see if it was a legitimate news story. Obviously, though, that can't be the case. The only thing stronger and more reliable than Oklahoma's roads and bridges is the Oklahoma City TV news media. They don't care if they get the story first. They just want to get it right.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter