TOLEDO, Ohio — The Craig Memorial Bridge is closed indefinitely after a driver went through the closed gates and damaged several of them, Ohio Department of Transportation said.
It's one of the bridges that connects north Toledo to the east side.
"At this point it's closed indefinitely because of the recklessness of the driver," ODOT spokesperson Kelsie Hoagland said.
Originally the bridge was just going to be closed for the day because of a simple mechanical error.
That was until a driver drove around the road closure signs and went right through the gates.
"They crashed through both sets (of gates)," Hoagland said. "They did not stop."
So far, the person who did it has gotten away with it.
"Now with the gates being broken, we cannot safely open the bridge to traffic without the gates being functional," Hoagland said.
WTOL 11 spoke to several people around east Toledo about this bridge being closed. Some said it was an inconvenience. Hoagland said this bridge is also utilized by emergency vehicles.
"It's the everyday motorist that's taking their commute to and from work, but it's also our emergency first responders who are going to be impacted as well," Hoagland said.
This isn't the first time this bridge has been shut down. Based on WTOL 11's reporting, the bridge has closed at least four other times in just the last couple of years.
Hoagland said this bridge isn't problematic; she calls it "amazing" considering it was built in the 1950s and is still standing strong, with fixes needing to be done here and there.
What she said is problematic is the driving behavior of the person who did this.
"It's a very fortunate example where there were not people conducting service work on this segment of the roadway because this could've been a very different situation," Hoagland said.
ODOT said the soonest it might be able to open the bridge again is Tuesday. But there's no guarantee. It depends on when they can get the parts for the repairs.
This incident is considered property damage and Ohio State Highway Patrol data shows property damage incidents have increased annually over the past several years.