Howey bridge reopens fully day after crash

Workers did a quick turnaround in fixing a section of guardrail on the Howey bridge that a motorist plowed through Wednesday, plunging her car into Little Lake Harris.

The span connecting Tavares and Howey-in-the-Hills was reopened to both lanes of traffic Thursday morning, said Steve Olson, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

“They were able to expedite the work,” he said.

Some of those same construction workers also deserve credit for rescuing Nicole Bankston, 35, whose 2015 Nissan Altima landed in the lake, said Larry Hutchinson, 48, an inspector for Metric Engineering who was steering the boat that reached her first.

“She had just her face and head above water,” he said. “She’s lucky she got out of that car.”

Darren Thornton and other witnesses to the crash compared the accident to a harrowing scene from an action movie.

“It looked like somebody doing a stunt,” said Thornton, who was driving across the bridge with his wife, Melissa, and their two youngest children.

Bankston’s car 8-foot section of damaged flanking destroyed an concrete and concrete sections.

The work was handled by Leware Construction Company, which is building a new $22.2 million Howey bridge on the east side of the current State Road 19 bridge, which dates to 1951.

Though there was concern about getting enough concrete for the repair, “they were able to get the product sooner than they anticipated,” Olson said.

Damage was estimated $10,000 to $15,000.

It was handy that crews were right there.

“You have people mobilized and ready to go,” Olson said.

After the initial disruption, the bridge remained open with just one lane until the fix was complete. at Leware’s

Hutchinson said the construction crews worked through the night to fix the breach in the guardrail.

Troopers said that Bankston swerved after she thought she saw something in the road, hit the curb, then over-corrected. Witnesses said the car flew into the air, through the concrete rail and into the lake.

Hutchinson said he and other wokers didn’t immediately realize what had happened because of the noise of the construction equipment.

“I noticed traffic had stopped,” he said.

Hutchinson, who was in the 20-foot skiff owned by Leware, was aided by other workers who lifted Bankston out of the lake.

“She was banged up pretty good,” he said. “We asked was anybody else in the car. She said, ‘No, just me.’ ”

They sped her to the north shore of the lake where paramedics were waiting.

Hutchinson, who has worked as an inspector for Lake Marybased Metric for 19 years, said he has witnessed too many fatal accidents while working on highways and other public projects.

“Thank God this wasn’t another one,” he said.