St. Augustine police: Alcohol involved in pickup truck's crash into Castillo de San Marcos

St. Augustine police: Alcohol involved in pickup truck's crash into Castillo de San Marcos

A St. Augustine man is hospitalized in serious condition after slamming his pickup truck into a retaining wall of the Castillo de San Marcos this morning, police said.

Michael Harrison Bridges, 27, was driving west on East Castillo Drive about 2:40 a.m. when he veered off the roadway, struck a fence and a tree before heading through the parking lot. The vehicle then crashed through some shrubbery and went into the fort's Covered Way retaining wall, said Gordie Wilson, superintendent of the federal property.

Bridges was taken to Flagler Hospital and then flown to Orange Park Medical Center, one of two trauma centers in the region.

Officer Mark Samson of the St. Augustine Police Department said the crash report states that Bridges had been drinking. The investigation is continuing.

Samson said the truck was heavily damaged. Wilson said the crash took out small chunks of the wall and did other damage, but he had no cost estimate. He said the wall, standing just before the fort's moat, was likely built in the 1700s. The fort remains open.

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St. Augustine police: Alcohol involved in pickup truck's crash into Castillo de San Marcos