Driver crashes on bridge, faces drunken-driving charges

A man who told police he had just dropped some friends after drinking at a bar in the evening of Dec. 12 crashed his car into an abutment on the Penn Street Bridge in West Reading shortly before 11:30 that night. The car had been traveling west on Route 422 when it ran off the road at the Penn Street East exit, knocked over a lamp post (which knocked down an “Exit” sign), went over a grassy median into the opposite lane of traffic, went over two lanes of eastbound traffic, jumped a concrete median, crossing over the westbound travel lanes and jumped a curb before going over the sidewalk and hitting the bridge abutment.

When the officer arrived the car, a gray Hyundai Sonata, was facing the wrong way but the driver was conscious and only suffered injuries to his hands.

The suspect’s blood-alcohol level was 0.19, more than double the 0.08 BAC threshold for drunken driving. Court records indicate the driver, a 21-year-old man, lives in Shillington but police said he showed the officer a Maryland driver’s license. He now faces more than a half-dozen charges, including drunken driving and reckless driving.