VALLEY VIEW, Ohio -- The fears of thousands of Northeast Ohio drivers who traverse the tallest bridge in Northeast Ohio became a reality Tuesday morning for a 52-year-old Cleveland trucker who lost control of his rig and plunged 200 feet to his death.

Investigators are trying to figure out why Lawrence "Larry" Cunningham hit the brakes on Interstate 480 bridge in Valley View about quarter-mile before the Interstate 77 exit as he traveled in the westbound lanes in fairly heavy traffic.

"The truck jackknifed and the trailer spun around shearing the cab off the frame at the floorboards, sending the driver and the cab over the south barrier wall and a chain-link fence," Valley View Police Lt. Glenn Dugas said. "Imagine a 24-foot trailer swinging around like a pendulum or slingshot. Just the sheer force and weight of that basically sheared the top of the cab at the wheels."

Dugas today said he learned that the trailer was much longer than 24 feet, at least 40 feet long.

Since the twin spans over the Cuyahoga Valley opened in 1977, people have feared that cars and trucks involved in accidents on the bridge -- which is 212 feet at its highest point -- would fly over the sides.

The bridge has 32-inch concrete barriers called parapets and a 4-foot-tall mesh fence on top of that. Jocelynn Clemings of the Ohio Department of Transportation said when the bridge is replaced in the next 10 years, the parapet will be 42 inches high -- the new industry standard.

Clemings and Dugas agreed that a higher barrier would not have made a difference in Tuesday's crash.

"Considering the way the accident happened, I don't think it would have mattered if it were 32 or 42 inches high," Dugas said.

The cab crashed into a wooded area about 20 feet west of the Cuyahoga River bank, near to a right-of way employees from a power company use to service wires.

The trailer remained on top of the bridge. It was pretty miraculous, Dugas said, that no other vehicles were involved in the crash as the tractor-trailer spun out of control.

Police recalled one other fatal crash in which a vehicle went over the side of the bridge. In 1996, a car went airborne over the barrier on the westbound lanes and crashed to the ground below, killing the 76-year-old driver.

A year later, a trucker was pulled from the cab of her rig as it hung over the concrete barrier after crashing through the mesh fence.

Also today:

(Sun News)

"It's unlikely that fencing would have prevented the accident that happened today,'' she said.

Anyone with information is asked to call 216-524-9687.

Cunningham was hauling empty 55-gallon drums for Gray Container Co. of Cleveland. Tony Gray, Cunningham's cousin and co-owner of the company, said the trucker was headed to Akron. Cunningham had worked for the company for 32 years, Gray said.

"He was a very good guy," Gray said. "He was in good shape. He worked out every day. The truck was in good shape."

Company officials are puzzled as to what caused Cunningham to lose control of the truck. Gray said late Tuesday that they had not yet been contacted by investigators and only knew what had been reported in the news.

The Cuyahoga County coroner's office will perform an autopsy on Cunningham on Wednesday, a spokesman said.

A half-dozen police and fire departments, along with ODOT, closed off I-480 at West 98th Street, but kept the high-speed lane open during most of the cleanup.

Plain Dealer reporters Tom Breckenridge, Amanda Garrett and Donna J. Miller contributed to this story.