Charles Winokoor Herald News Staff Reporter @cwinokoor

Tuesday

Jul 28, 2020 at 10:22 PM Jul 28, 2020 at 10:22 PM


FALL RIVER – The search for a man who jumped off the Braga Bridge early Tuesday evening has been called off at least until Wednesday morning.

“They called it off due to darkness and safety concerns,” said Fall River Fire Department acting District Chief Matt Johnson, who said that the search was called off at 8:45 p.m.

Johnson said witnesses had told police they had seen a man at 5:15 p.m. hoisting himself up the bridge’s metal, anti-suicide barrier.

“Several witnesses,” he said, saw an unattended parked vehicle in the westbound lane of the bridge that connects Fall River to Somerset.

That being the case, Johnson said, the individual would have jumped off of the north side of the bridge.

He said the water depth in the vicinity of the Battleship Cove and its adjacent shipping lane is between 40 and 45 feet.

Johnson said the search effort was undertaken by Fall River firefighters using the department’s new Marine 1 rescue boat with assistance from other members of the Narragansett Bay Marine Task Force.

He said those included fire department rescue vessels from Tiverton, Somerset, Swansea, Cranston and East Providence, as well as the harbormasters from both Fall River and Tiverton.

The Coast Guard and State Police were also involved, Johnson said.

But he says neither fire nor police department divers were in the water.

A Fall River fire captain in a recent Herald News story about the department’s new marine rescue boat, noted that the number of suicide attempts off the Braga Bridge, since the barriers had been installed some years ago, had sharply declined.

Johnson estimates that the anti-suicide barrier is likely at least eight feet tall.

“You would have to make an effort,” he said, to scale the barrier and jump.

Those in need of immediate help should contact the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or the Samaritans of Bristol County in Dartmouth from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week, 365 days a year, at 508-673-3777 or 1-866-508-4357.