Woman who died falling 50 feet from rising drawbridge is named as her family slams operator

‘She was clasping on, and she knew the only thing preventing her from the concrete and the steel below was her 79-year-old arms and hands’

A woman in Florida who died after falling from a rising drawbridge has been named as 79-year-old Carol Wright. Her family is now demanding answers from officials.

The incident occurred on Sunday 6 February. Ms Wright was on the drawbridge as it began lifting, and she was unable to escape before she fell into an open chasm.

A bystander tried to help but the woman ultimately lost her grip and fell.

According to USA Today, police in West Palm Beach said the woman was walking off the bridge with a bicycle and was within 10 feet of the barrier arms that stop traffic when the bridge began to rise. She then fell into the gap.

A man on the other side of the barrier grabbed the woman but could not hold onto her, police said. She fell more than 50 feet to her death.

“She was walking her bike from east to west and had almost reached the furthest point of the moveable span when it went up,” police spokesman Mike Jachles said.

“There was a man who tried to help this woman as she was holding on to the elevated bridge, but unfortunately he was not able to rescue her. Unfortunately and tragically, she fell, landing about 50 to 60 feet below, where the mechanical parts to the bridge are, and she died on impact.”

Law enforcement is investigating why the bridge began to rise before all pedestrians had a chance to clear the bridge.

The bridge was closed for almost six hours after the incident. Rescue workers recovered the woman’s body while detectives and crime scene investigators reviewed the scene.

The Royal Park Bridge is closed to all traffic Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022 as West Palm Beach police and fire rescue work on the scene in 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. (Meghan McCarthy/The Palm Beach Post via AP) (AP)

Police said the bridge operator was “distraught” when law enforcement responded to the scene. The operator's actions will reportedly be a focus of law enforcement.

According to police, the Florida Department of Transportation uses a private company called Florida Drawbridge, Inc, to operate the bridges.

“There are crossing arms,” Mr Jachles told WPBF. “There are warning signs and there are safety procedures in place for the bridge tenders to follow, with multiple steps and multiple layers of checking to make sure that there are no cars or people on the bridge when it goes up. So that’s all part of the investigation, to determine whether procedure was followed or whether this woman crossed after the signals were down.”

A Wright family attorney identified Ms Wright on Monday, according to NBC’s Today.

“When the bridge tender pushed that button to lift that bridge, that was basically giving Carol a slow mental and physical death sentence,” lawyer Lance Ivey said at a press briefing.

He said her death was “untimely, unimaginable and preventable”.

“She was clasping on, and she knew the only thing preventing her from the concrete and the steel below was her 79-year-old arms and hands,” he added.