WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Police in Florida are investigating what led to a bicyclist falling from a drawbridge to her death on Sunday.
The woman, who has not been identified, was walking her bike across the Royal Park Bridge that connects the city of West Palm Beach to the Town of Palm Beach when the bridge started to go up, WPTV reported. Though the woman tried to hold on, and a witness ran to try to help her, she fell five or six stories from the bridge when she lost her grip, police told WPTV.
The bridge is owned by the Florida Department of Transportation, but the agency contracts a separate company to be the bridge tenders, WPBF reported. “There are crossing arms,” Mike Jachles, public information officer for the West Palm Beach Police Department, told WPBF. “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.” Now, part of the investigation will center on whether all procedures were followed.
There are only three bridges that connect Palm Beach to Florida’s mainland, with the Royal Park Bridge being the main bridge, WPTV reported. The bridge was closed for nearly six hours as police investigated.
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