WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – West Palm Beach police released a 911 recording Monday after a 57-year-old woman fell from a drawbridge and was later rescued by a boater.
Police received the 911 call just before 8:30 p.m. on April 2 at the Royal Park Bridge, 23 minutes after the woman was believed to have fallen.
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“I need the Coast Guard down here to the Okeechobee Bridge and Intracoastal, some girl fell through the bridge when it was open with her bike and she’s stuck up under this ledge,” the caller told police.
(Listen to the 911 calls below)
The caller later told authorities: “I’m trying to get her. I’m trying to get her off of under the bridge so if it opens again, she don’t get crushed. But she’s under the drawbridge part where it opens.”
Police said a few minutes later, a 53-year-old boater from Hawthorne heard the woman calling for help and rescued her, taking her to a nearby marina where they were met by paramedics.
The woman wasn’t seriously hurt.
“In an initial statement taken from the woman, she said she was walking from west to east with her bicycle on the north side of the bridge near the pedestrian walkway when the bridge began to open as she was about three feet from the pedestrian warning gate,” West Palm Beach police spokesperson Mike Jachles said. “Detectives estimate the woman fell approximately six to 10 feet to one of the landings beneath the bridge.”
Police said officers recovered the woman’s bicycle and interviewed the 28-year-old bridge tender and contacted her employer, FDI, along with the Florida Department of Transportation.
They said they plan to interview the woman again to “clarify” her initial statement.