Helen Koton said she didn’t hear any warning signals before the bridge started opening with her nearly halfway across. She said she was able to grab the railing. “I was holding onto the railing and I went up in the air,” Koton later told WSVN-TV in Miami.

As the bridge rose to its full height, shocked motorists got out of their cars and told the bridge attendant, who lowered the span after several minutes. “Finally, I came down. When I came down, I fell on my face,” she told the Fox affiliate. “So I bruised my forehead and my nose.”

Those were the only injuries she suffered, and she was released after treatment at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood. Koton, a winter resident, also lives in Massachusetts.