Van extracted from gap in bridge on Welland Canal
All Welland Canal shipping traffic was halted in St. Catharines Tuesday afternoon after a van became wedged in the gap between the roadway and the raised Homer Bridge.
The red construction van had been parked on the Queenston Street bridge around 1:30 p.m. when it got stuck front end first in the gap for about two and a half hours.
St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation’s Alvina Ghirardi said maintenance work was being performed on the bridge for cameras by a contractor. No one was in the vehicle at the time and there were no injuries.
Ghirardi, manager of regional services and marine facility security officer, said the matter is under investigation to determine how the vehicle became wedged between the reach and roadway.
“It certainly got into that slot but how it came to be there, that’s being investigated at the moment.”
One witness who would only identify himself as John said he was sitting on the patio of the nearby George’s Greek Village restaurant when he saw the vehicle slide down the bridge as it was being raised.
“I saw the truck slide down the bridge and went Oh My God,” he said, adding construction employees ran to the scene. “By their reaction, they were stunned too.”
The truck, with a smashed window and bent bumper, was
yanked from the space by a large tow truck around 4 p.m. and the bridge reopened to traffic again a short time later.
Ghirardi said shipping traffic was halted during the event. Three ships were on the canal in the St. Catharines area at the time at lock 1, lock 2 and heading downbound by the Homer Bridge.
Shipping traffic upbound to Lake Erie continued to move.
The Homer Bridge is operated by the Seaway from a central control operations centre on Glendale Avenue.
It’s not the first time a vehicle has collided with a canal bridge in St. Catharines.
In July 2013, a couple caught at the Lock 1 bridge when it started to rise fled for their lives when the counterweight of the bridge came down on their new pickup truck and flattened it.
A few months later in December 2013, a pickup driver truck trying to outrun police crashed through the safety gate at the Homer Bridge and tried to jump the gap as the bridge opened.
The airborne truck and slammed into the other side of the bridge and the driver was later arrested.