FONTANA >> A large vehicle transporting a military-style movie helicopter struck a bridge knocking the aircraft onto lanes of the southbound 15 Freeway near Summit Avenue Friday morning.
“This isn’t something we see every day, that’s for sure,” said Gus Rios, the project manager for Coffman Specialties, the construction company doing work on the overpass the helicopter struck.
Shortly before 7 a.m., a man transporting the helicopter on a flatbed trailer drove under the overpass and it appears the rotor
The helicopter toppled onto two lanes of the freeway and some debris from the aircraft did strike a passing vehicle, Burch said. However, it didn’t cause extensive damage and the driver was not injured.
Rod Stolz, the foreman for the construction site, jumped into a large forklift and used it to help get the helicopter off the freeway.
“When I was coming to the construction site, they were already working to get the helicopter up,” Rios said.
CHP officials say the workers were instrumental in getting the lanes open and traffic moving again.
Cars were backed up on the southbound 15 Freeway about a mile for about an hour.
After the hauler drove off, he left the helicopter on the side of the freeway just south of Summit Avenue. One of the blades appeared to have bent and was dragging on the ground.
It wasn’t clear where the driver was heading or if he was taking the helicopter to a movie set.
Construction workers said the bridge did not suffer much, if any damage, however an engineer was brought out to the scene to be certain.
Officers will investigate to see if the load was over-height, Burch said. If the investigation determines the load was too tall, a citation will be issued at a later time.