In a scene only a Hollywood director could script, a snow-covered bridge in Pittsburgh collapsed early Friday.
Five vehicles and a port authority bus tumbled into the ravine below.
Records show it's been more than four months since the last inspection - and a rating of 'poor' condition.
But a bridge's poor rating doesn't mean it can't carry traffic.

"To give you a number, it's like a four so it goes from zero closed all the way to nine," says Trumbull County deputy engineer Gary Shaffer. "A four is poor and it gets to serious and serious is really where you're going to take a look. You do a complete load analysis of that bridge when it goes from a five to a four and that analysis will let you know whether it has to be posted or not for a reduced weight limit."

Here in the Valley, the Old McCartney Bridge over Lincoln Park collapsed in 1984.
The bridge had a reduced weight limit when a semi carrying 20 tons of steel drove across it.
But Shaffer says the vast majority of inspections are done under less urgent circumstances.

"Our inspectors when they're out in the field and it's a critical issue, they'll notify us right away. We have closed bridges down immediately until we could get the work completed. But usually it's something that can wait weeks, months or a year to get the funding and the work completed."

Columbiana County Engineer Bert Dawson says inspectors have to factor in everything from the type of bridge to the materials it's built from when they rate.
Bad bridges dot the Pennsylvania landscape - more than 3,300 structurally deficient ones.
For many, Friday brought worries of where and when the next one could come down.