WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The victim in a fatal fall from a Florida drawbridge has been identified as a 79-year-old woman.
Investigators say the woman, whose name has not been released, was walking her bicycle across the Royal Park Bridge in West Palm Beach on Sunday when the drawbridge began to rise.
Police said the woman was about 10 feet from the end of the bridge and attempted to hang on to a railing but lost her grip.
A bystander tried to pull her to safety but was unsuccessful, officials said.
Officials said she fell five or six stories and landed on concrete. She died at the scene.
“The woman tried to hang on. There was a bystander nearby who tried to help her, but tragically she fell five or six stories below where she died landing on concrete,” West Palm Beach police spokesperson Mike Jachles said.
Why the bridge tender began raising the span before it was cleared of pedestrians will be a focus of the investigation, Jachles said. The bridge tender was described as “distraught," the Palm Beach Post reported.
The Florida Department of Transportation maintains the bridge, but the bridge tenders are staffed by a private state contractor.
“Palm Beach is accessible only through three bridges and this is the main bridge, so it’s very used by cyclists,” bicycle safety advocate Juan Orellana told West Palm Beach television station WPTV.
The bridge is equipped with bells and whistles to alert drivers and pedestrians that the drawbridge is going up.
“For one thing you will hear the bell before the arms go down, so when you hear the bell you gotta get out of the way before the bridge goes up,” he said.
The bridge was closed for more than six hours after the accident.