The dump truck driven by Michael Collins was pulled from the Mississippi River Wednesday and taken to an undisclosed location to be examined by Vicksburg police and representatives from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to determine what may have caused it to back into the river.

“We have moved it to a place outside of Warren County, and it was not taken to the county where the wrecker service that pulled the truck out is located,” Police Chief Walter Armstrong said. “We wanted to take it some place where it can be examined without interruption.”

Armstrong said police officer Lt. Leonce Young will be working with OSHA officials to examine the truck. He said the inspection was expected to begin about 9 a.m. today. He did not know where a report on the probe would be released.

While the truck was being removed from the water, authorities continued their search for Collins, 22, a driver for Riverside Construction Co., who remained missing after the truck went into the Mississippi Tuesday evening at the Florida Marine Transport site off Warrenton Road. He was moving limestone from a barge moored along the river at the Florida Marine to another location on the property.

Witnesses told police Collins was in the truck as it went in the water, but commercial divers hired by Riverside did not find him in the truck.

Deputy fire chief Craig Danczyk said the truck was found about 45 to 50 feet under the two barges moored at the property. He said a commercial driver who made the dive on the truck said its side windows were open and the windshield was broken out.

He said the diver searched the truck’s cab and under the barges for Collins but did not find him.

“This has become a surface search,” Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said. “We are searching from the point where the truck went into the water south to Grand Gulf. We have Wildlife, Fisheries & Parks game wardens helping us with the search, we are getting help from Sheriff (Frank) Davis in Claiborne County, and in the river counties south as far as Natchez, we have Wildlife and Fisheries agents searching the river. The Coast Guard is broadcasting on the commercial network telling barge traffic about the drowning.”

He said bad weather Wednesday forced authorities to cancel their search early. He said the search resumed at first light Thursday.

The truck went into the water about 5:15 p.m., and police officers, sheriff’s deputies and firefighters responded to the scene. Danczyk said divers were called about 5:25 p.m., adding when they went into the water, the divers estimated the depth at 60 feet with a current running about 6 to 7 mph, adding the divers encountered debris such as large rocks and entanglements.

“The truck traveled further than we anticipated,” he said.

Before the commercial divers arrived, he said, “We were able, with the help of Riverside Construction staff, to locate a metallic object that was between the barges, and we were able to take a heavy weight on a rope and we could kind of ping it. We could hit the metallic object, (and) we assumed was the vehicle.

“The barges were joined, and the truck came to rest between the two barges that were moored next to one another. The opening was no more than 18 inches, so it was too narrow to drop a diver in between the barges.”

He said the barge on the riverside was moved. When the contract divers arrived, he said, “We gave them a good scene location, they took our recommendation and started at that point.”

The commercial divers began their dives between 8:50 and 9 p.m.

“It’s a very tragic situation,” Danczyk said. “We’re very sympathetic for the family and Riverside Construction.

“Everybody involved with our dive team made a strong effort; we were hoping to locate the truck, and it was a little deeper into the water and the current, and that cost us more time. At that point, we suspended our operations and let contract divers work that scene.”