Cops seek owner of 'suspicious' SUV under Throgs Neck

The Throgs Neck Bridge was closed for more than an hour and a half early Thursday morning near the peak of the rush hour after police discovered a "suspicious vehicle" under the span on the Queens side, police and city transportation officials said.

Hours after the incident, police said they were still looking for the driver of the vehicle, a 2009 Nissan.

Traffic was snarled for hours after police closed the bridge in both directions at 6:07 a.m., deployed investigators and searched for the driver of a seemingly abandoned sport utility vehicle. Traffic came to a standstill in parts of the Bronx and Queens as officials quickly ruled out terrorist activity.

The Bronx-bound side of the span was reopened to traffic at 7:25 a.m., according to the state Department of Transportation, but could only be accessed via the ramp on the Cross Island Parkway. The Queens-bound side was reopened about five minutes later.

The closure caused massive traffic jams in the Bronx and Queens.

Traffic cameras showed traffic at a standstill on the Whitestone Bridge and RFK-Triborough Bridge, as well as on the Cross Bronx Expressway east of the Bronx River Parkway. But the Throgs Neck Bridge and the Cross Bronx Expressway extension leading to it were both eerily empty during the closure.

City bus driver Milton Hernandez, 44, was on duty at about 4:40 a.m. when he said he saw the vacant car with its lights on, engine running and rainwater from the overpass pouring into an open sunroof.

He said he pulled his bus over to see what was wrong. "I thought it was odd that the sunroof was open and the water was streaming in," he said.

He said he "opened the door and checked to see if anyone was inside. The car was just getting drenched."

Another driver who also pulled over to check out the car then used his cell phone, presumably to call authorities, Hernandez said.

With Maria Alvarez, Anthony M. DeStefano and Gary Dymski