(WWJ) -- A northern Michigan man is dead after a motorcycle crash on the Mackinac Bridge over the weekend.
Authorities say a 78-year-old man from Cheboygan was riding his motorcycle across the bridge Saturday when he crossed the center lane divider and hit an oncoming pickup truck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Saturday’s death on the bridge was a rarity, with only a handful of fatalities over the years on the Mighty Mac, which opened in 1957.
Five workers were killed during the construction of the bridge, with the Mackinac Bridge Authority memorializing their names. Another man, working as a bridge painter in the 1990s, also died.
A small, private plane smashed into one of the bridge’s suspension cables in 1978 while flying in heavy fog, killing all three aboard the plane.
In 1989 a woman from Royal Oak was killed after losing control of her Yugo and going over an outer guard rail into the Straits of Mackinac. Another car went off the bridge in 1996, with authorities ultimately determining it was done on purpose.
The name of the man killed Saturday has not been released.