CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A woman is safe with her family after a state police trooper talked her out of jumping off the Big Coal River Bridge in Kanawha County.
State Police Captain Dave Lemmon said he was on his way to work Monday morning at around 10 a.m. when he saw the woman throwing an item off the side of the bridge along U.S. Route 119.
“She was sitting over the side of the bridge with her feet dangling,” Lemmon told MetroNews. “That’s when I got out of the vehicle and began to approach.”
The woman’s boyfriend was in a vehicle parked near her, Lemmon said. She was “highly upset” at the time he approached her.
“She was saddened deeply at the recent passing of a family member and some other dynamics within the home,” Lemmon said.
As he proceeded along the edge of the bridge, Lemmon said he was able to reach his hand out and pull the woman off the bridge and back down to the roadway.
Lemmon said he later asked the woman what she threw over the bridge.
“She said ‘well, it was a bottle,” I said, ‘why did you do that?’, she said ‘I just wanted to hear it hit the bottom, hit the water,” Lemmon said. “She was contemplating her own fate.”
Much of Lemmon’s training and past experiences during his career helped him rescue the woman, he said.
“Dealing with people in similar like situations during your career, you try to reference when you’re dealing with people in those states,” he said.
Lemmon said there have been two confirmed deaths off the Big Coal River Bridge.