By Tim Binnall
A foolhardy motorist in Detroit is in hot water with the law after he channeled his inner action hero and jumped over a drawbridge in his car. According to a local media report, the jaw-dropping incident occurred on Wednesday evening when the unnamed man was cruising along a bridge that spans the Rouge River. At the moment he arrived, the bridge had begun raising which, under normal circumstances, would be a cue for him to stop. The driver, however, had a rather ill-conceived alternative approach and opted to floor it towards the growing opening.
Drawbridge operator Andre Locke, who watched the wild scene unfold, recalled that "I looked, I said, 'no, he ain't.'" His disbelief quickly giving way to the realization that the man was, indeed, trying to jump the bridge, the worker hit an emergency stop button, but it was too late. "Over he went, blew out all four of his tires," Locke said, "and then he crashed into the other gate." While successfully completing such a jump may be cause for celebration in the movies, in this instance it led to the man being arrested since, with his car badly damaged, he was unable to flee the scene.