By Carlisle Jenkins and James Johnson Cody Staff Writers
Junior DeVaughn Humphries said he heard a giant booming sound just before 6 a.m. on Sept. 26 and ran to the window.
“I thought it was some kind of explosion,” Humphries said. “It was really loud, but I couldn’t see anything.”
Humphries didn’t know until he got to school that the sound he heard was from the collapse of the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Southfield Freeway (M-39) at Cathedral St., just two blocks east of the Cody campus and two blocks west of Humphries’ home.
According to local news reports, a waste hauler drove under the 15-foot bridge with its boom extended. The boom hit the bridge, and the bridge collapsed. The driver, Stanford Michael Doll, 54, was injured when a large section of the bridge fell on his truck. The driver was transported to the hospital where he later died.
No other drivers were seriously injured and nobody was crossing the bridge when it fell.
M-39 was shut down in both directions all day causing heavy traffic and forcing many people to find different routes. One D-DOT bus stop used by many Cody students had to be moved because it usually stops on the Southfield service drive.
Dashaya Murphy takes the Southfield bus, and her route was detoured because of the collapse. This detour made her bus ride longer than was needed.
“I didn’t get to school the next day until 9:00 because of the bridge,” Murphy said.
The freeway was open by the next morning, but the bridge collapse has caused problems for many Cody students who have to cross over the freeway to get to school. Terah Taylor of the Michigan Department of Transportation said there are plans to replace the bridge that aren’t finalized.
“The bridge will be fixed, but we don’t know the timeline, yet,” Taylor said.
It can’t be soon enough for Cody APL sophomore Allona DreJanette.
“I used that bridge every day to get to school, and it takes me about 10 minutes longer now,” DreJanette said.
