YOUNGSTOWN — Interstate 680 on Monday afternoon looked like a scene from a movie: a car crushed under the trailer of a semitractor-trailer and the pillars of a bridge looking as though they had been bombed.

Luckily, afterward, the driver of the car escaped out of the passenger side unhurt, and the driver of the semitrailer relaxed with his pooch, Bailey, along the median of the closed interstate, also without injury.

The bigger issue is the damage done to the bridge, a major east-west thoroughfare on the West Side, which the Ohio Department of Transportation was evaluating Monday afternoon to determine what type of repair will be needed and how long it will take.

The interstate and bridge were closed throughout the late afternoon, sending lots of traffic around the stoppage. Glenwood Avenue was being used as one detour.

The truck driver, Harold Kidder of East Liverpool, said he was heading south on I-680 near state Route 193 and moved over to allow vehicles to enter the highway, then felt “a little bump and a big jerk.”

The car that became trapped “was merging in” and hit the side of his trailer, Kidder said.

The mirror on his truck was broken off, and Kidder didn’t realize right away that a car had gotten stuck under his trailer until he got out and walked up to it.

“He said he was alright,” Kidder said of the driver.

Lt. William Ross of the Youngstown Police Department accident investigation division, confirmed that there appeared to be no injuries.

Ray Marsh, spokesman for District 4 of the Ohio Department of Transportation, said a bridge engineer was sent to the site to evaluate the damage to the bridge, but it was too soon to say how long the bridge might remain closed.

The Youngstown Police Department announced late Monday that road closures on I-680 southbound, I-680 northbound, 711 southbound exit and the Mahoning Avenue bridge both directions would be in effect for 48 hours.

The truck lost the large piece of steel it was carrying. It ended up on the northbound lanes of I-680 on the other side of the damaged bridge, suggesting the piece of steel may have hit the bridge pillar.

erunyan@tribtoday.com