A woman died this Sunday when she fell into the void when she was crossing a drawbridge with her bicycle that began to rise in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to local police.
The victim, who has not been identified, was walking his bicycle at one in the afternoon and was only 10 feet (3 meters) from the end of the Royal Park Bridge, which connects to the island of Palm Beach, when it rose and she fell through a hole in the road, local station WPTV reported.
The Royal Park Bridge was closed to all traffic on Sunday after a woman fell over the edge. McCarthy / Red USA Today
Mike Jachles, a spokesman for the West Palm Beach police, explained to the local station that "the woman tried to hold on" on the edge of the bridge and "there was a pedestrian nearby who tried to help her, but tragically fell five or six stories more. down where he died landing on the concrete.”
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The authorities are investigating why the bridge was raised when there was still a person crossing it.
The infrastructure falls under the Florida Department of Transportation but is managed by a private state contractor.
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“Palm Beach is only accessible via three bridges and this is the main one, so it's heavily used by cyclists,” bicycle safety advocate Juan Orellana told WPTV.
The bridge is equipped with bells and alarms to alert drivers and pedestrians that it is being raised.
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“For one thing, you'll hear the bell before [supervisors] lower their [bridge] arms, so when you hear the bell you have to get out of the way before the bridge goes up,” he added.
As a result of the death, the bridge was closed for almost six hours, finally reopening at seven in the evening.
With information from
NBC News
and
The Associated Press
