Bridge raised without warning

An Illinois woman was injured when her car had to jump the spans of the Pinellas Bayway. The bridge tender was fired.

By ANNE LINDBERG

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 23, 2000

A bridge tender suspected of drinking on the job was fired shortly after he opened the Pinellas Bayway without warning, causing major damage to a car that jumped the gap, blowing all four tires, authorities said.

Michael David Montgomery, 40, raised the drawbridge late Friday to make way for the Starlite Princess, a 100-foot paddle-wheel boat offering lunch and dinner cruises, authorities said.

Rather than turning on red signal lights and lowering the barricades, Montgomery just raised the bridge, said Florida Highway Patrol officer Jeff Benoit.

As the bridge rose 8 to 10 feet, a car driven by an Illinois woman jumped the gap and landed on the other side, blowing out all four tires, the trooper said.

"She got airborne and came over the thing," Benoit said.

Maurine Cody of Oak Lawn, Ill., was injured; her mother, Penny, was not. The car sustained an estimated $3,000 to $4,000 damage.

Soon after the incident, Montgomery's supervisor arrived.

Mark Smith had been alerted to the situation by another bridge tender who became concerned after overhearing a radio conversation between Montgomery and a boat.

That bridge tender, whose identity was not revealed, described Montgomery as having a slurred voice and not making sense, according to Smith's report to the Department of Transportation.

Smith decided to go to the Bayway after he spoke with Montgomery over the phone.

Montgomery's voice "did sound slurred when I asked him what was going on," Smith reported. "He told me that everything was under control, he was getting ready for an opening and hung up the telephone."

Smith said he then got another call indicating that the Starlite Princess had reported the Bayway bridge had opened without lowering its barricades.

The Bayway has a safety mechanism to ensure that gates are down and warning lights are on before the bridge goes up. But officials had overridden that safety mechanism because of ongoing problems with the bridge.

That meant safety features had to be started manually.

When Smith got to the bridge, he found Montgomery sitting on the railing with two highway patrol officers.

"He talked to me in a slurred voice and said something like, "Hi, how you doing?' Then he really didn't make much sense to me," Smith wrote. "I noticed that his eyes were bloodshot at the time."

Smith called in a replacement and gave Montgomery's belongings to officers who were putting him through field sobriety tests. He said he asked the officers to tell Montgomery that he'd been fired.

"I stood by while they cuffed him, told him they were taking him to the hospital and that he was terminated from his job as bridge tender," Smith wrote.

Montgomery, 40, of 411 18th Ave., No. 3, Indian Rocks Beach, failed field sobriety tests administered at the scene and was sent to Bayfront Medical Center for blood-alcohol tests, Benoit said. The results of those tests are incomplete.

Montgomery has been charged with culpable negligence, a misdemeanor. He could not be reached from comment.

Public records show Montgomery had two previous incidents of driving under the influence.

- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.

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