Soused “Apple specialist” drives car onto Golden Gate Bridge walkway, gets stuck, gets arrested
It’s a good thing 22-year-old San Francisco resident Daniel Micah Soto did his sightseeing early Tuesday morning. Apparently, he wanted a choice view from the Golden Gate Bridge. Or maybe he convinced himself he had lucked into some sort of exclusive VIP lane. Or maybe he was so drunk he didn’t know where he was going when he drove his blue Mustang onto the iconic bridge’s walkway before getting stuck.
Probably the latter.
According to California Highway Patrol spokesman Andrew Barclay, just after 5:00 a.m. Tuesday, Soto, in an intoxicated state, made a right-hand turn from Conzelman Road near the Marin Headlands into a parking lot on the bridge’s north end. But instead of parking, Soto drove through a security gate and onto the bridge’s pedestrian walkway. He managed to cruise for about 400 yards before wedging his car between a guardrail and a chain link fence, at which point his car’s airbags deployed. Soto sustained minor injuries and was taken to the hospital by CHP officers, who later arrested him on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Expert wedge job
Bridge authorities were forced to shut down the northbound and southbound lanes of the bridge for about six minutes around 10:15 a.m.—in the midst of the post-holiday Monday commute —in order to bring in a forklift to pull the Mustang out.
“The Golden Gate Bridge crews like puzzles,” Priya David Clemens, a spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District told SFGate. “They certainly got a challenge this morning.”
Soto lists himself as an “Apple specialist” on his LinkedIn page.
Read more:
SFGate: Alleged drunk wedges Mustang on Golden Gate Bridge sidewalk
NBC Bay Area: Mustang drives on Golden Gate Bridge sidewalk; CHP arrests suspected DUI driver
Photos from Facebook.com and the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District.
