A barge broke loose from a tugboat before slamming into a Texas bridge, the Coast Guard says

By LEKAN OYEKANMI and VALERIE GONZALEZ
Associated Press

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A barge carrying fuel drifted away from the tugboat pulling it and crashed into a bridge near Galveston, Texas, causing the span to partially collapse and cutting off the only road to Pelican Island. The U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday that the coupling connecting the two vessels broke. Video shows splotches of oil that spilled from the barge into Galveston Bay after the crash, but the size of the leak is unclear. The Coast Guard says it has deployed a boom, or barrier, to contain the source of the spill and is using drones and personnel to determine how much oil is in the water.