SAN JOSE — Deputies with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office are being hailed as heroes for talking a troubled woman out of jumping from a ledge onto Interstate 280 earlier this week.
At about 11:20 a.m. Wednesday, the sheriff’s office received a report about a woman running in and out of traffic on South Bascom Avenue near the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. As deputies raced to the scene, she sprinted north past Moorpark Avenue and climbed over a chain-link fence onto a narrow ledge overlooking I-280 some 30 feet below.
Deputies Matthew Carroll and Andrew Galaviz called for the far right lanes of the freeway to be shut down, then used bolt cutters to reach the woman, who was described as “irate” and “non-compliant.” Employing crisis intervention techniques, the deputies convinced her not to jump and talked her off the ledge, the sheriff’s office said.
No one was injured during encounter.
“I am extremely proud of the heroics, calm, and critical thinking displayed by these deputies,” said Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith.
“They applied their crisis intervention techniques to resolve this situation with the best possible outcome, no one was injured and the victim will receive appropriate resources.”
HELP IS AVAILABLE:
Call the Santa Clara County Suicide & Crisis Hotline at 855-278-4204 or visit www.sccbhsd.org/suicideprevention
