Fatal Bicycle Accident Reported In West Palm Beach

Tragic news was reported over the weekend involving a woman falling to her death in a drawbridge accident. Details are still murky, but WPBF News is reporting that an investigation is underway in West Palm Beach into how and why a woman fell to her death while crossing a drawbridge that went up while she was walking across it:

“Investigators said ‘an older woman’ was walking her bicycle in the pedestrian lane of the Royal Park Bridge connecting the Town of Palm Beach to West Palm Beach around 1 p.m. She was coming from the island to the City of West Palm Beach when the incident happened.

Detectives said she was next to the eastbound lanes when the panels of the bridge started to go into the air. At that point, investigators said she had to try to hold on to anything she could.

‘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,’ said Mike Jachles, public information officer for the West Palm Beach Police Department. ‘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.’

Jachles continued, ‘She had almost reached the end of the bridge, about 10 feet from the end, the bridge went up at some point and she tried to hold on and she couldn’t.’

Some of the top questions from investigators right now are how this could have happened in the first place, and who is responsible.

Investigators said the Florida Department of Transportation contracts a company called Florida Drawbridge, Inc. to be the bridge tenders. Neither the Florida Department of Transportation nor Florida Drawbridge, Inc. have provided a comment.

‘There are crossing arms,’ Jachles said. ‘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.’

Officials said the bridge tender was ‘very upset’ at what happened and is being interviewed as part of the investigation.

A skateboarder who also attempted to help the victim is also being interviewed.”

As a reminder, here are some guidelines for bicyclists from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

• Wear equipment to protect you and make you more visible to others, like a bike helmet, bright clothing, reflective gear, and a white front light and red rear light and reflectors on your bike
• Drive with the flow, in the same direction as traffic
• Obey street signs, signals, and road markings, just like a car

Here are some guidelines for drivers who are sharing the road with bicyclists:

• People on bicycles have the same rights and responsibilities as people behind the wheel of a vehicle
• Yield to bicyclists as you would motorists and do not underestimate their speed

To read the full WPBF article, click here.