Car removed from Golden Gate Bridge sidewalk

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Workers have removed a car that caused quite a scene on the Golden Gate Bridge during this morning's commute. The driver treated the pedestrian walkway as a traffic lane and wedged the car into an incredibly tight spot.

"When I heard about this, I had to make a few calls to confirm I was actually reading it correctly," said California Highway Patrol Ofc. Andrew Barclay.

Officer Barclay says the driver of a blue Mustang wedged his car on the Golden Gate Bridge sidewalk after crashing through the area marked for pedestrians.

"This individual went over metal pylons, squeezed through very tight areas," said Barclay.

And ended up stuck between a fence and a hard place.

"To any normal person, it would be obvious that you're driving someplace you're not supposed to," said Barclay.

But there's nothing normal about what happened. Officer Barclay says it all went down just after 5 a.m. The CHP received a report that a car headed south on 101, had entered the pedestrian on ramp speeding.

"After he got far enough, he came to a narrowing in the sidewalk where the vehicle became wedged when that collision occurred - it appears the airbags were deployed," said Barclay.

They've identified the driver as 22-year old Daniel Soto of San Francisco and arrested him for DUI. He wasn't seriously injured in the crash but his car versus sidewalk versus bridge has created a problem, never seen by bridge workers.

"It's good that the Golden Gate Bridge crew like puzzles because the driver certainly gave them a challenge this morning," said Priya David Clemens, Golden Gate Bridge District.

Officials themselves were stuck on how to remove a car too big to fit the way it came in.

"Crews are going to have to figure out if they're getting a crane and picking it up and taking it over the side of the railing or if they're going take part of the railing down. Whatever way it happens we will be blocking one to two lanes of traffic," said Priya David Clemens, Golden Gate Bridge District.

Eventually, doing just that stopping traffic in both directions and taking it up and over.

The entire crash was captured on surveillance video, but the video will not be made available to the public because of security reasons.