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Posted on 04/05/2015 5:28:43 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine
A woman died and her husband was injured after they drove off the ramp to the demolished Cline Avenue bridge, which has been closed since 2009.
Zohra Hussain, a 51-year-old woman from Chicago, died of burns at the closed Riley Road exit of Cline Avenue, according to the Lake County coroner's office.
Her husband, Iftikhar Hussain, 64, survived the plunge of 37.5 feet off an elevated section of highway.
He was able to get out of their 2014 Nissan Sentra after it smashed into the ground below, on property owned by BP. But the car erupted into flame while his wife was still inside.
Barriers block the long-gone bridge, but Hussain drove around them.
"The Cline Avenue bridge is marked with numerous barricades including orange barrels and cones, large wood signs stating ROAD CLOSED with orange striped markings," Lake County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Patricia Van Til said. "There are concrete barricades across the road to further indicate the road is closed."
The couple appears to have been on their way to visit family since they had food in the vehicle, a police investigator said. They were from Chicago and were likely unfamiliar with the area.
The driver was believed to have been following GPS navigation that told him to continue on Cline Avenue, and was apparently paying more attention to the navigation system than what was in front of him, according to a police investigator.
The coroner's office was called out to 129th Avenue north of Riley Road in East Chicago at around 10:30 a.m. Saturday. Zohra Hussain was pronounced dead at 11:25 a.m.
Iftikhar Hussain was taken to Methodist Hospital Northlake in Gary, where he was listed in stable condition.
The tragedy isn't the first at the Cline Avenue bridge, which collapsed during construction in 1982, killing 14 construction workers and injuring 16 more.
In 2009, it was closed after decades of heavy semi-trucks hauling steel coil out of the Indiana Harbor steel mills caused it to deteriorate. In 2010, the Indiana Department of Transportation condemned the bridge.
Then-Gov. Mitch Daniels promised to swiftly rebuild the bridge, which had served the Midwest's largest refinery and the biggest steelmaking complex in North America, and gave Chicago residents an easy route to visit casinos in East Chicago and Gary. But the state reneged after deciding a replacement bridge would be too costly.
Plans to build a privately financed toll bridge have dragged on for years. Construction of a new bridge over the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal is supposed to begin this spring.
Recalculating.....
it warns to be careful. it isn’t exact and you have to use common sense.
large wood signs stating ROAD CLOSED with orange striped markings
“Here’s yer sign!”
The world sure has reductio-ad-absurdium'ed since then.
This is why men don’t ask for directions.
That should be GWB, not GPS. The cause of all problems.
He drives past barriers and warning signs yet the news story blames his GPS????? I guess common sense really isn’t so common anymore.
RIP for his wife but he brought this tragedy on himself.
There is a road near me that always is wrongly shown on GPS. I have owned maybe 7 or 8 units in the last 15 years and everyone of them gets it wrong.
I just updated my current one only a month or so ago and it still shows it wrong.
This particular highway had a zig zag maybe 50 years ago. It was straightened out so long ago that there is just the tiniest hint of the old route still showing. If you didn’t purposely look, you would never even see the old highway.
Still every time I drive over it which is at least weekly, it still shows the old road. You drive along with the arrow following the highway when suddenly, you are driving over the woods. One would think that aerial views would have resulted in them changing it eventually.
Needed a GPS with free updating and have updated it.
First of all, why is this bridge even standing?
Secondly, nobody in their right mind would drive ahead under those conditions. GPS plots a good path for you and in most cases is fine. I’ve used google maps on my phone to travel to all sorts of bizarre places, both in the US and abroad. (Built in automobile GPS systems are often less reliable.) However, anything can be wrong, and you have to keep your wits about you.
A family member recently got a new car with all sorts of lane control, de-acceleration, etc. features...and a little prompt appears at the start telling you that the driver is still responsible for controlling the car! I thought it was funny, but maybe not.
Prayers for this unfortunate couple. They should have been more vigilant, but also the city should not have left that bridge up in such a condition. I sense a (justifiable) lawsuit comng.
I don't care what the GPS might say, its kinda hard to miss the cones, barricades and sign that says "road closed".
Usual suspects ping.
“Is this home depot?”
“But my GPS said...”
“Her husband, Iftikhar Hussain,.....”
Ah, there is the problem .... didn’t have the proper language “Siri” on his phone.....was all infidel to him.
Out of all the things that can kill you in East Chicago.
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