A driver avoided injury but badly damaged a section of the Cranberry Hole Road railroad bridge in Amagansett on Tuesday evening. The bridge was closed to traffic soon after the accident, and it remained taped off yesterday, with Metropolitan Transportation Authority police officers stationed at both ends.
Few details were available as of press time, but witnesses reported that the vehicle had been headed west when it struck the bridge's white-painted wooden railing. In doing so, it lost its front right tire. The driver, whose name was not immediately released by East Hampton Town police, appeared to be unhurt.
When Katie Sisson, who lives on Cranberry Hole Road, drove up to the bridge just after the crash, the banged-up car was stopped on grass, more than 10 feet away from its missing tire. "The driver was standing outside his car, and no one was around, so it must have just happened. I stopped and said, 'Are you okay' and he said he was, and that he was just in shock," she said.
The driver told Ms. Sisson he had already called the police.
"I looked up toward the bridge and saw a tire lying in the road," Ms. Sisson continued, "and I said, 'Is that your tire?' and I thought, gosh, maybe we should get it out of the road, because I drive over this bridge all the time and when you turn, you can't see where you're going."
"I don't know how he didn't flip over, because somehow he got from where the tire was to where his car was with no tire."
She drove up onto the bridge, activating her hazard lights in case other drivers tried to come across. The police arrived quickly.
Drivers coming west from Cranberry Hole Road were being diverted onto Cross Highway and Abraham's Landing Road. The bridge will be closed until repairs are made.