![]() ![]() Anderson, whose son killed himself at the age of 20, said the coalitions year of hard work means a great deal to him. A 35-year-old man jumped off the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Friday afternoon, Washington State Patrol Trooper Guy Gill said. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated ), Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated ). Below is the timeline of Patch's coverage: Several Twitter users are reporting that there is a possible jumper on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. As of 12:13 p.m., the spokesman for the Washington State Patrol tweeted: All lanes open EB SR-16 on the Narrows. West Pierce Fire and Rescue responded to the scene. "I'm still amazed at the circumstances (that led to the man's survival) and I can't help but think there was a reason," he said.Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. I'm not sure I want to visit that scene again." "I could not have done it without Danny," he said.Īlthough he is glad to have helped, the experience was unsettling for Antonia, a traffic-control painter. Emmanuel Lacsina, chief medical examiner for Pierce County, believes that the only way anyone could survive such a lengthy fall is to hit feet first.Īntonia credited his son with racing 180 feet up a steep path and waving down a motorist who eventually called for help. ![]() The Tacoma Fire Department boat took the man to the Narrows Marina and from there he was taken to the hospital.ĭr. "I thought he was going to die and stuff like that," Danny said he was thinking as he raced up the hill.Īntonia covered the man with his coat and tried to keep him calm for the 10 to 15 minutes it took help to arrive. Antonia told his son to run back up the steep hill to the parking lot to get help and call 911. ![]() He grabbed the unconscious man under the arms, pulled him ashore and was about to check for vital signs when the man began coughing and sputtering. "Then I saw what appeared to be a hand."Īntonia raced into the water. It was three or four minutes later, Antonia estimated, that he saw something rolling in the water, but he could not make it out in the diminishing light. "You rationalize it away but the thought crosses your mind that someone may have jumped," Antonia said. "We looked at one another, trying to rationalize it," Antonia said, and then when they could see nothing in the water came to the conclusion that it probably was a wave from the swift-moving current hitting one of the boulders. They looked and saw a geyser of water splashing 8 to 10 feet in the air. when they heard what sounded like an explosion, "like a sharp crack," Antonia said. They were preparing to leave shortly before 5 p.m. The other fishermen had left and he and Danny were preparing to leave when Danny suggested they go for a walk down the beach, Antonia said. He could not have been more lucky," the deputy added.Īntonia, 37, said it was an incredible set of circumstances that caused him and his son, Danny, 9, to be there at the time the man jumped. It was lucky, too, that Antonia, of Renton, and his son were fishing below and rescued the jumper, Troyer said. Five feet farther out he would have been in deeper water and probably would not have been rescued, Troyer said. Troyer estimated the fall was 150 to 180 feet and says if the man had jumped five feet closer to shore or five feet farther out he would have been killed.įive feet closer and he would have hit the beach. Lucky? "He was the luckiest guy on the face of the Earth," said Ed Troyer, a Pierce County sheriff's deputy who responded to the west end of the bridge. Rice said the plunge is about 190 feet from midspan. Richard Rice, of the Pierce County sheriff's office. He is one of two or three people who have jumped from the bridge and survived, since the bridge was re-built in 1950, said Lt. The man, a 32-year-old Gig Harbor resident, is in serious condition in Tacoma General Hospital with shoulder injuries and extensive bruises that are not considered life-threatening. He denied jumping off the bridge but later told Antonia that he was schizophrenic, that he heard voices and, "I just wanted it to be over," Antonia said. The man stood up, and Paul Antonia tried to drape his coat around the man, but the man yelled at him. "Where am I? What happened?" the man asked a fisherman who rescued him. It's hard to know if the man who leaped off the Tacoma Narrows Bridge on Sunday afternoon will ever appreciate how lucky he was. ![]()
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