It's a small miracle no one was seriously hurt as ice fell from the cables of the on to motorists below.
The bridge is essentially a busy motorway with vehicles driving close together. A minor shunt could quickly become a pile-up in severe weather like Scotland is enduring.
The bridge has only been open for a couple of years and has already proved it can continue to carry traffic when the older crossing would have shut.
Engineers claimed the new one would never have to close because of high wind.
But it wasn’t just a gale funnelling down the firth this week. The gusts combined with sleet, snow and freezing temperatures to create dangerous levels of ice on the cables towering above the platform.
There are serious questions about why sensors were not put in place immediately after a similar build-up last March.
And SNP ministers are getting into a bad habit of congratulating themselves when there’s still work to be done.
Bridge operators and the Government are now in no doubt this is a problem likely to be repeated.
The right equipment must be installed as a matter of urgency so precautions can be taken in time.
A lump of ice smashing through a windscreen is certainly not the way drivers should be alerted to danger.
