Some Questions About That Dangling Car Hanging Off a Bridge in Toronto

Toronto police issued a traffic alert on Wednesday morning during rush hour about a car hanging from a bridge in the city. The dominant theory, supported by a statement from authorities, claimed it could be part of a movie set. But, now, even if that is the case, police are saying the dangling of the car would have been unauthorized.

Said car, a blue sedan that seemed to be missing windows and looked tattered if not burned-out, was seen hanging under a bridge in the Don Valley. Police had to cordon off part of the roads in the area, as well as the space under where the car was.

Though the spectacle was deemed not hazardous by authorities, we have some questions.

If you are a filmmaker without a proper permit to order a car dangled off a city bridge, how did you ever expect this to go unnoticed?

Toronto is known for being a location for filming movies, so the explanation that this car could be related to a shoot is not all that surprising.

Still, dangling a car off a bridge from a cable in plain sight without proper permitting sounds like an unequivocally bad idea. Perhaps that is part of your plot and you hope it will lead to publicity, so congrats if that’s the case! But also, seems at least moderately shitty that emergency services and other resources had to be used for this.

How many people on their morning commute did this scare the shit out of?

Driving in the area along the Don Valley, while it at times provides beautiful vistas of Toronto, can be stomach-churning enough. Rush hour in Toronto can easily turn into a nightmare that makes you question why you chose to live in this city in the first place, but when a car is inexplicably being dangled off a bridge before you’ve even finished your morning coffee? No thank you.

Is this an elaborate plot by a marketing company to get media attention for something?

Honestly it seems like pretty much everything unexplainable in our modern world could be one of these stunts at this point. Hopefully if this is one of those overwhelmingly annoying stunts it turns out better than that the times companies’ guerrilla marketing ploys have caused bomb scares. Here’s a litmus test: If your marketing plot is going to potentially spark police and emergency response, it might not be worth it.

Is this art?

This is almost always a possibility. Perhaps this particular one is a commentary on humanity’s reliance on gas-powered vehicles, pollution, and climate change?

Could it be a student prank?

Engineering students may possess a skill set that would be helpful in such activities. High school students in Grimsby, Ontario, who planned to study engineering and computer science after graduation managed to get a Jaguar S-Type on top of a roof (or rather, the exterior of it built around a wooden frame) in a graduation prank in 2016. The student prank theory really doesn't seem too far-fetched.

Whoever dangled the car, Toronto’s mayor, John Tory, has suggested they be held accountable.

“If it’s something else, if it’s a prank, then obviously the law should apply to people who are doing things like that,” Tory told reporters on Wednesday. “So, we’ll have to see.”

Fire crews have since cut down the car, and police have launched a criminal investigation into who is responsible.