Veteran Saved From Attempted Suicide Off Bridge

Man talked down from jumping off New River Gorge Bridge
Charleston Daily Mail
by Marcus Constantino
Multimedia reporter
Monday, November 3, 2014

A scary situation on the New River Gorge Bridge ended without tragedy Monday morning after a man was rescued from a support beam underneath the New River Gorge Bridge.

A Fayette County 911 dispatcher said a report of a “possible jumper” was called in at 8:45 a.m. According to a press release from the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department, the individual called 911 and told a dispatcher he was underneath the bridge.

When first responders arrived on the scene, they found that the man had left the catwalk and was standing on a steel support beam near the apex of the bridge’s arch, at the edge of the bridge. Opened in 1977, the deck of the New River Gorge Bridge is 876 feet above the New River.

According to the press release, personnel with the Fayette County Crisis Negotiations Team spoke with the individual for more than two hours before he agreed to allow first responders to pull him to safety. A member of the Fayette County High-Angle Rescue Team was lowered down from a fire truck ladder and harnessed the individual so he could be safely lifted up to the bridge deck.

Fayette Sheriff Steve Kessler said the man was a military veteran who may be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

“We will be working with the Veterans Administration to help this individual obtain the treatment that he needs,” Kessler said.
read more here