A few moments before 5:40 a.m. on Sunday morning, patrons inside Selma Curb Market heard a speeding car go by. Moments later they heard a loud bang according to state troopers.

A 1995 black Honda Accord driven by David Lee Smith, 22, of Selma apparently drove slightly off the paved road onto the grass

in front of the “Selma Welcomes You” sign on the east side of Highway 80. Tread marks indicated that the car then careened left, with its brakes possibly being applied once before hitting the tip of the concrete median dividing the four lanes of traffic. Then it apparently went airborne, knocking out an entire section of the guard rail on the west side of the bridge – 100 feet from the foot of the bridge –

and bending another.

Both ends of the car were smashed, the windshield cracked but not broken, and both airbags deployed.

Between the car and the breached guardrail was assorted debris, and oil was visible on the pavement on both sides of the median.

State Trooper Terry King, who worked the accident, said the car flipped three times end over end, crossing the concrete median and landing astride the northbound lanes about 150 feet further up the bridge, pointing back toward the hole in the guard rail.

The badly mangled car still had a dealer’s tag – Michael’s Auto Sales.

Almost immediately after the accident Selma police ran tape across both ends of the bridge, blocking traffic for about two hours.

Smith was taken immediately to Vaughan Regional Medical Center by ambulance, where at mid-morning his mother, Lillie Smith, reported that he was talking and stable.

Trooper

King noted that Smith was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident.

During the accident investigation, involving members of the Selma Police Department and the State Trooper, an unidentified person said that the car must have been going at least 100 mph or more.

Another said, “Just think what might have happened if a car had been coming the opposite direction in another lane.”

Early on a representative of the state Department of Transportation arrived to assess bridge damage.

Then a wrecker came and driver, trooper and others present swept the debris from the bridge.

Somewhat later a DOT crew arrived with a load of sand and a spreader to cover over the oil spills.

Other DOT workers began erecting a temporary guard rail to fill the gap created by the car. Until the rail was up, traffic was blocked in the southbound lanes.

Alvin Beal of the state Department of Transportation on the scene said that estimates would be made this week for repairing the bridge and then a plan for repairs would be made.

At the hospital Trooper King reported that Smith was “banged up pretty bad” and that the case was still under investigation and that no tests results had been received.

By 7:45 a.m. traffic was again moving in both directions over the bridge.

At the hospital Lillie Smith agreed to speak. She said that her son lived with her. Also, the car belonged to her, that she had had it about three weeks, and that she did not know where her son had been or where he was going when the accident occurred.

She said that the police called her following the accident

and asked her to come to the hospital.

She said that tests had been run but no results had yet come back.

She said that her son had not been involved in an accident before this one.

A DOT official remarked that there were few automobile accidents on the bridge, and that in all the years he had been working in Selma knew of no other car that had caused this amount of damage.

However, he said that there have been accidents involving large trucks which have caused similar kinds of damage.

Trooper King at the hospital said, “I can’t believe he’s alive. After seeing the car, I thought I would be coming over here to watch them take him away.”