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.
We were coming back from north of the Sacramento River last night, stopping off at a party at a house we’d never been to.
The GPS did a great job of getting off Interstate 80 and then about three miles into the sticks heading east on the main road, then up some side streets. On the way back we came to the main road again, and Mrs. Flash turned left, that is, East, because the GPS told her to. I said to her we drove three miles east from the interstate to get here, we should turn right and drive three miles west to get back.
I was overruled by the GPS. Except after about a mile, the
well lighted road with sporadic houses and a shoulder turned into a dark road with no houses and no shoulder. Then we were told to turn onto some road I’d never even heard of, leading to G_d knows where. I told Mrs. Flash “It’s taking us through the woods. You are going to be driving all the way back home in the dark through the woods”.
At that point she turned around and we were back to the interstate in about fifteen minutes, then it was clear sailing home. GPS is no substitute for using your brain.
Yes we are.
And can tie our non-Velcro shoes and tell time on a clock that isn’t digital.
Can we assume you missed this part of the article?
“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.”
We’re doomed.
And write in cursive.
Ugh!
I used navteq map reporter to let them know that it was physically impossible for five warehouses to be at my truck exit.
They informed me that: “our field tech has driven the directions and verified them correct.”
So their field tech is on record stating he saw home depot, do it best, ups, storm king, and cardinal health all at the same location..
..I want the meds he was on.
They further claimed their database for the area was 100% correct, no changes were needed.
Maybe.
Map and a dime for a payphone used to be enough.
Coming soon to a self driving car near you.
Yeah.
And recall how some insulted us for opposing self driving cars.
Sheesh.
The author managed to place blame on the previous Republican Governor.
East? West? You pay attention to these imaginary concepts in your head when driving, instead of hearing voices?
If we ever put humans on Mars, I have the feeling that it will come about by accident, because someone has been listening to GPS instructions.
I used it, and got the location of my local police station corrected.
Haha! I thought about that as well. Were the passenger-side air bags disabled? ;-)
The stupid...it burns!
Honor Killing?
The map and Street View seem to imply that the road will be re-opened at some later time. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that is the case.
Wonder what their malfunction is in my area.
“Can we assume you missed this part of the article?”
I read that but can’t understand how they found a way to get around the barriers even if they were clueless and the GPS said to go there.
When barriers are properly installed you do not drive around them unless you are at the controls of a M1A... Abrams tank. They were not properly installed or these people would not have been able to go around.
According to another article I read, they drove through the big orange barrels and the wooden barricades, just knocking them out of the way.
Don’t know about the concrete barriers. They may have been able to drive around them.
Remember, just as soon as you make something idiot-proof, along comes a better idiot.
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