In a shocking scene, a car plunged into the water after a wooden bridge in Norway collapsed on Monday, and a huge truck barely escaped being swallowed by the river. 

Police were called to the scene in the early morning, after the bridge had collapsed, causing the car dive, and a truck was stuck on a section of the bridge that had broken off and was protruding vertically out of the water. 

Miraculously, there were no injuries. The driver of the car in the river managed to get out by himself, and the truck driver was evacuated. 

A helicopter was at the scene assisting and lifted the truck driver off the broken bridge. 

The bridge, which was opened in 2012, connects the village of Tretten to the other side of Gudbrandsdalslaagen River. 

The bridge is constructed of glued laminated timber. Another bridge, similarly constructed, collapsed in 2016 in a nearby area. The 2016 collapse was attributed to “a defective joint in the framework.”

The mayor of Tretten was shocked that the bridge had collapsed. He said, “It is completely catastrophic, completely unreal. It is also a fairly new bridge.”

The Norwegian Automobile Federation said the bridge was last inspected in 2021. It is demanding an independent investigation into the cause of the collapse. 

“We who travel on the roads must be able to trust that the bridges are safe to drive on,” the organization’s spokeswoman, Ingunn Handagard, told the Norwegian press.