A man threatening to jump off the I-95 bridge over State Road 100 was rescued after snarling traffic for nearly an hour. The same man had attempted to jump off the Palm Coast Parkway bridge over I-95 last August. He was Baker Acted then, as he was today.
The man straddled the South I-95 highway sign attached to the concrete barrier at the edge of the northbound lanes of 95. He was facing east. Traffic in both directions on State Road 100 and on I-95 was halted away from the scene, causing drivers to navigate through city streets such as Old Kings Road and Town Center to get around the incident scene. The incident was over by 3:30 p.m.
“He was drinking a beer and threatening suicide,” Sheriff Rick Staly, who was at the scene as the incident approached resolution, said. “Our negotiating team along with a lot of deputies and the fire department responded. In about an hour we were able to bring him down from the sign with the assistance of the fire department bucket truck. But this inconvenienced a lot of drivers on State Road 100 and on 95 that had to be diverted.”
The Palm Coast Fire Department’s Tower 24 engine brought the man down. The Flagler Beach Fire Department’s Tower 11 was also at the scene, as were other fire department personnel.
“He will be baker acted,” the sheriff said. “Hopefully he’ll receive more intensive care for whatever is going on un his life.” Theoretically the man could be charged with a crime, but prosecution would be unlikely, the sheriff said, because of his mental health issues. “Having a beer doesn’t help the matter, many times it gives the suicidal person the liquid courage to actually do it. Fortunately that was not the case in this case,” he said.
A few years ago the state Department of Transportation installed metal-mesh barriers on Palm Coast Parkway after a teenage girl twice attempted to jump from there, twice getting rescued by sheriff’s deputies and firefighters, and both times halting traffic on the roadways above and below. There are no similar barriers on the 100 bridge.
“It’s a tragic incident, it’s what we train for,” Staly said. “We hope we never have to use it but our deputies did a phenomenal job, saved a life today, so did the fire department, although it inconvenienced a lot of people.”
