One dead after pedestrian bridge collapses onto Detroit freeway

A pedestrian bridge collapse closed about three miles of a busy Detroit freeway Friday morning, killing one driver and cutting off a main highway to downtown.

The 6-foot-wide footpath off Cathedral Street over Highway 39 was pulled down about 6 a.m. when a truck hauling a dumpster passed southbound under it and snagged on the side of the bridge with its boom, said Lt. Michael Shaw of the Michigan State Police.

The bridge crumbled onto the northbound and southbound lanes below and crushed the truck’s driver, Shaw said. No one was on the bridge and no other drivers were injured. Authorities closed off about a three-mile stretch of the freeway.

The highway, also known as the Southfield Freeway, is one of three main routes from downriver Detroit to the city’s northern suburbs, Shaw said. Authorities planned to spend the morning and afternoon demolishing the bridge and clearing the freeway so it could be open for the evening commute.

While clearing the highway may reopen a main path for motorists, Friday’s crash closed a main walkway for students to nearby trade schools and high schools. Students who used the bridge to cross over the freeway will have to go a few blocks north or south of the regular route to get across the highway or rely on other transportation for the foreseeable future, Shaw said.

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