Man tries to jump off Golden Ears Bridge
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Updated: January 04, 2010 3:20 PM
Suicide barriers failed to stop a man who tried to jump off the Golden Ears Bridge on Christmas.
The 44-year-old Abbotsford man climbed over metal railings on the span, shutting down the crossing between Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge and Langley for four hours.
Ridge Meadows, Langley and Surrey RCMP, the Integrated Emergency Response Team, RCMP's marine unit and fire departments were alerted to the jumper just after 2:49 p.m. Dec. 25 by passing motorists.
RCMP Supt. Dave Walsh said the first officers on scene tried to talk to the man and called out to him while he was on one side of steel suicide barriers.
With police and emergency personnel watching, the man scrambled over the railings onto a ledge open to the water below, while threatening to jump.
The bridge was cordoned off and negotiators with the emergency response team were able to stop the man from jumping after speaking with him for more than three hours.
A hole was cut in the metal fence so the man could cross back safely.
The two-metre-high metal fence is designed to look like fish traps used by First Nations.
TransLink, which owns the bridge, believes the aesthetically-pleasing suicide barriers worked as they should.
"The system is there to slow people down, but if someone is absolutely intent on cracking the system, they will," said Ken Hardie, with TransLink.
"Still, it is not the sort of thing we'd like to have happen."
The man was arrested by police under the Mental Health Act and taken to Ridge Meadows Hospital for an evaluation.
