PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Two Maine residents who nearly drove off a bridge into the Piscataqua River last year have settled their lawsuit against the agency that operates the bridge.

The financial terms of the settlement with the Maine-New Hampshire Interstate Bridge Authority were not disclosed.

“There’s a confidentiality clause in the settlement that prohibits me from disclosing the amount, but I can tell you my clients and I are very pleased with the outcome,” lawyer John Lyons said.

Robert Wyatt of Eliot, Maine, and Jim Currier of Kittery, Maine, had sued the authority, claiming the bridge operator and gatekeeper were grossly negligent in operating the bridge on May 20, 2001.

According to investigators, the gate operator was relaxing in a recliner instead of checking the bridge position after it was lifted to allow some fishing boats to pass through. The bridge operator, thinking the bridge was down, ignored warning lights and overrode the gate controls to allow traffic through.

Both were fired after the investigation. The bridge operator apologized to the Wyatt and Currier families in a letter.

Unlike drawbridges that raise on an angle, the Sarah Long Bridge linking Portsmouth to Kittery, Maine, has a deck section that lifts straight up in the air, so the bridge ends with a gap over the water.

Shortly after 9 that night, Wyatt started toward home after taking his 11-year-old daughter and her 13-year-old friend to a movie in Portsmouth.

His pickup truck was traveling at about 30 mph as he headed onto the bridge, when he suddenly realized the deck was in the upright position.

Wyatt slammed on the brakes and managed to stop just a few feet from the edge, barely avoiding a plunge into the fast-moving tidal river.

Currier was returning home after attending a church function with his 8-year-old daughter and was directly behind Wyatt. He hit his brakes and swerved to the left, just avoiding slamming into the back of Wyatt’s truck.

Both have described the incident as terrifying.

“I remember coming to a screeching halt and seeing nothing but a pitch-black void and the water below me. Everything just happened so quickly. The kids were pretty shaken up, and my only concern was getting them home safely,” Wyatt told Foster’s Daily Democrat.

Currier said he didn’t know how he managed to avoid hitting Wyatt’s truck.

“If I hadn’t reacted as quickly as I did, I believe the impact would have forced his car over the edge and may have carried me over as well. By the grace of God, that didn’t happen,” he said.