MANNSVILLE, OK -- It has been more than a year since a forklift put a hole in an old Johnston County bridge. To this day, the bridge remains impassable, and no repairs have been scheduled. Daniel Armbruster has more.

In April 2008, a worker for a drilling company attempted to cross a one lane bridge a few miles outside of Mannsville. The worker was not injured, but the bridge sustained heavy damage and is still out of operation.

Now it's up to the court to decide who will pay.

A large steel bar lies across the Old Norton Bend Bridge on Greasy Bend Road in Johnston County to block oncoming traffic, and a quarter-mile before the bridge there are warning signs saying "ROAD CLOSED" and "BRIDGE OUT".

At a distance the bridge appears normal, but if you look closer you can see a hole in the bottom of the wooden platform. On April 30, 2008, of last year a worker with Kal Drilling out of Oklahoma City attempted to cross the bridge with a forklift when part of the bridge fell out from underneath.

At the time, authorities said the worker for Kal Drilling was lucky to be alive, as the incident could have been much worse. Enough of the bridge stayed intact to hold up the forklift, but if it hadn't, it would have been a steep fall down to the Washita River below.

In December a lawsuit was filed against Kal Drilling by the Johnston County Commissioners to obtain the cost of the bridge's replacement.

That amount has not been determined and according to County Commissioner Roy Wayne Blevins, the commissioners are not allowed to discuss the details of the matter until the outcome of the lawsuit has been decided.

The Johnston County District Attorney's Office, which is prosecuting the case, isn't talking either. The case is scheduled to go to trial in October, but Kal Drilling recently filed a motion to move the trial outside of Johnston County because of media coverage.

For now, the historical bridge continues to age, and residents traveling Greasy Bend road will have to find another way to cross the river.

We attempted to contact Kal Drilling. A company spokesperson was said to be unavailable and did not return our calls.