Unfortunately I'm not a bike commuter but I lurk around here sometimes and thought this was a crazy enough story to pass on. I don't know the person in this story personally but they are a friend of my parents neighbors (long series of connections but that is the gist of it). Anyways the neighbors forwarded this account from him to my mom earlier and I thought some of you guys might want to read it:


I can safely say that last night's bike commute home from work was a
> disaster. I took my usual route from downtown St. Paul to Brooklyn
> Center which takes me all the way up the West River Road from Fort
> Snelling. I was under the 10th street bridge climbing the hill on the
> bike path when I heard a crunching noise. I had my headphones on so
> this wasn't too loud. Then I looked up and saw a cloud of white dust.
> It looked like a mist of water and I thought the St. Anthony dam just
> broke. Then I tasted cement and saw the path just ahead of me covered
> in rubble. So I thought part of the bridge must have broke (because I
> couldn't see the whole bridge through the dust) and my first thought
> was "boy I'm glad I wasn't 20 seconds faster today".
>
> I turned off my headphones and it was silent except for an eerie sound
> (that reminded me of a horror movie) of many people moaning and crying.
> I leaned my bike against a tree, walked closer and saw all the cars and
> damage. Because of the groaning and moaning I knew I had to climb up
> onto the roadbed to see if I could help anyone. I'm pretty sure I was
> one of the first people on the scene and I didn't really worry about
> the road breaking further, especially since I had a helmet on which I
> wasn't about to take off (yes that was my yellow helmet mentioned in
> the news).
>
> So I first went to where a black car was bridged across the crack with
> another car on top of it that had three people in it. I told them they
> needed to get out and the woman passenger said she thought they were on
> top of another car and that she was too scared to get out and just
> wanted to hold my hand. I told her that they were on the car but that
> it was wedged in pretty good and didn't look like it would budge if
> they tried to get out. After holding her hand for a short time I left
> downslope to one of the other 5 or 6 cars with people still in them.
> These cars were parked on a pretty steep slope that made it quite
> slippery (at least I was wearing my mountain bike shoes and not my road
> bike shoes).
>
> Most of the people in these cars were speechless and in shock (none
> were hysterical) so I just calmly told them there was a route off the
> bridge because I just came on that way, and that I'd walk with them
> over there. This seemed to help convince them to get out of their cars,
> so I did this with four or five people. One woman was on her cell and
> she said something to the effect of "I'm telling you it collapsed
> and I'm still stuck on it." Another woman had high heels on and she
> was slipping badly until I held on to her waist while she took them off.
> There was a steep piece of cement they had to climb down to get onto
> the bank so I suggested they do a crabwalk down it, and that seemed to
> work but some had more difficulty than others. The scariest thing then
> happened when I put my foot on a large broken piece of cement while
> helping a large woman into her crablike stance. The cement piece broke
> loose and slid down towards another woman who was almost to the bank.
> My heart about stopped watching it slide towards her but luckily it
> missed by about three feet.
>
> Then the last person on that section of road, a man with an injured
> hand who I think was in the red car at the very bottom, walked off just
> as the first rescue help arrived. A rescue worker yelled that everyone
> should get off the bridge and I thought "hey, good idea." I told
> him that this man with the hurt hand was the last one off this section
> and I then retreated into the crowd now forming along the River Road. I
> noticed that it was about 6:25 so I figure it took about 15-20 minutes
> to help get those ten or so people off that section.


**Edit** Some amazing pictures here:

https://flickr.com/photos/s4xton/sets...57770382/show/

That is really wonderful to read. What a selfless person, and how great that he was there and had the presence of mind to help others. Thanks for posting.

It was a sad day in Mpls the other day
Your friend has a pretty long commute! St. Paul to Brooklyn Center.. wow.

Unfortunately not a friend of mine but a friend of a friend of a friend type deal. Someone I would no doubt be proud to know though.

Incredible story, and I can't say enough about your friend (of a friend of a friend) - that's really amazing. Good for him.

I'm glad there weren't any more serious injuries, those pictures certainly give the impression that it was WAY worse.

Man what a guy!! Thanks for posting that story. He is no doubt a hero, and a bike commuter too.

Fantastic read.

great story, thanks for sharing!

but what makes me cringe is the fact he thinks that he is not putting himself in danger especially because he is still wearing his helmet.

Wow...bothers you THAT much huh?