Drag racing on Fort Pitt Bridge Friday morning under investigation
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Nearly 50 cars were drag racing and performing burnouts on the Fort Pitt Bridge Friday morning with one of those vehicles striking a Pennsylvania State Police cruiser and nearly running over multiple troopers.
It was a complete takeover of the bridge with more than four dozen cars and possibly upward of 300 people involved around 3 a.m. on Friday morning. They were blocking incoming traffic coming into the city through the Fort Pitt Tunnel.
"They were actually seeing all these people on top of the bridge recording and then people trying to get through that bridge were calling into the 911 center saying, 'Hey I can't get through, I'm stuck in the tunnel,'" said Pennsylvania State Police Troop B Public Information Officer Rocco Gagliardi.
When troopers got on the scene, they say one of those vehicles, a burgundy Jeep Grand Cherokee, took off from the scene and hit a marked police cruiser, and nearly ran over troopers.
According to state police, they were able to locate the vehicle close to Bridgeville using license plate readers and took those inside for questioning.
They said they were working to determine who exactly was involved and driving the car at the time.
"Sometimes in a lot of cases with hit-and-runs and even like DUI stops that kind of lead on a little bit -- you see people switch around in the vehicle, or out of the vehicle," said Gagliardi. "So, we have to conduct all these interviews to actually see who was in charge of that vehicle at the time of the crash, and who was trying to run over our troopers at the scene."
Police said illegal drag racing is happening in cities across the country but has never taken over an entire bridge. They said their investigation is far from over.
"Our first priority is the sole purpose of the Cherokee and then after that incident is complete, we can start looking at that footage and get all the plates and all the info needed to see who was all there that night and start breaking that incident down step by step," Gagliardi said.
So far, no charges have been filed.
Police said they will be out this weekend looking for anyone participating in drag racing.
