“I just held on for dear life until other responding units could arrive,” he recalled. She began to sob as traffic roared by them in the darkness. When the woman saw Sullivan, she started running toward the top. Loved ones mourn and wonder why the state hasn’t done more to keep people from jumping.īefore dawn on another shift, Sullivan responded to a call about an abandoned vehicle near the top of the bridge and spotted a woman walking on the shoulder.

First responders collect broken bodies from the water.

Witnesses are haunted by seeing people leap from the bridge or crash into Tampa Bay below. If successful, the barrier also will stop the waves of impact that ripple from each jump. Officials expect the $3.4 million project to be complete by summer, after a delay blamed on the pandemic. Now, a project designed to prevent them is finally underway.Ī contractor for the Florida Department of Transportation has started work to install steel netting along a roughly mile-and-a-half stretch of the bridge. The Skyway ranks among the worst bridges in the nation for suicides. Authorities called loved ones, then visited Martin’s mother in Texas to make the official notification of his death. A fire rescue boat set off to recover the body. The Florida Highway Patrol and Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation. 3 of 25-year-old Mitchell Martin triggered a grim process that has played out hundreds of times since the Skyway opened.

Drawbridge 7 days to die