Posted on 02/07/2022 2:36:11 PM PST by BenLurkin
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A bicyclist fell to her death when a drawbridge connecting Palm Beach to the Florida mainland began rising before she could reach the other side. A bystander tried to pull her to safety but lost his grip, officials said.
The woman was walking her bicycle toward West Palm Beach on Sunday afternoon and was within 10 feet (3 meters) of the barrier arms that halt traffic when the drawbridge started to move, police told news outlets.
Why the bridge tender began raising the span before it was cleared of pedestrians will be a focus of the investigation...
The Florida Department of Transportation maintains the bridge, but the bridge tenders are staffed by a private state contractor.
royal park bridge west palm beach fl Generic photo:
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Darwin award.
The Blues Bros. she wasn’t.
I hate Illinois Nazis.
Couldn’t she just have run down the raising bridge to the level part? It looks like it.
I thought such bridges were raised on schedule and automatically. Somebody wasn’t paying attention.
Aren’t there pedestrian-biker warnings given out ahead of time? Such a tragedy and horror to die that way.
She failed playing Bridge.
Should have read more books by Goren.
And it says a bystander tried to help her hang on, but she couldn’t. Where was the bystander? In any case, horrible way to go.
>groan<
Love that movie!
I’m picturing this event as a Looney Tunes cartoon.
Deaf perhaps
I’ve ridden my bike AND driven on that bridge many times and been there when it was raising. This isn’t a catapult. It’s got bells and gates and is as slow as molasses.
Something just ain’t right on this one. Weird.
Confusing article. It sounds like the woman was half way across when the bridge began rising. But it would seem if the bridge section tilted up, she’d slide down toward the roadway and not the water.
Or didn’t want to wait and tried to jump the gap, not realizing it not as easy as in the movies.
The story doesn’t add up. I’ve been on many such bridges.
Ok, she fell through the gap between the roadway and the rising bridge. So the bystander ran up to keep her from falling through.
Draw bridges are manned just so things like this don’t happen.
Normal procedure is for the alarms to go off and the barrier drop before the bridge raises. The operator is supposed to give traffic whatever time is needed to clear the bridge to ensure no injuries or deaths.
Only after ensuring that all traffic has cleared the bridge does the operator start raising the bridge.
IMVHO this lady didn’t venture out onto the bridge until the operator had started the bridge actually raising. She probably thought she had time to make it across. Think again Florida Woman.
I imagine the guy that tried to help her ran from his car to get her to stop.
A New Orleans cop died on a draw bridge in 2009. In that instance street lights were out, bridge lights were a out, most of the safety measures were fubar...hey, its N’Awlins.
https://www.nola.com/news/article_7887f675-4019-593b-af29-c63feddc4cd9.html
Antifa trying to make DeSantis look bad?
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