‘It was adrenaline’: Deputy saves man dangling from bridge
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Calaveras County, California (KRCA ) — The Tuolumne County sheriff’s deputy seen in a photo holding onto a man who was dangling from a bridge said he had to sprint in the moments leading up to the dramatic rescue.
Cpl. Andrew Long told reporters on Tuesday that he grasped the man’s forearm through a bridge railing after running and diving to stop the man from nearly plunging 150 feet off the Parrotts Ferry bridge in Calaveras County.
“It was adrenaline, is what it was,” Long said, noting that he was able to catch the man despite having a broken thumb.
The Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office said the situation unfolded after their office received a tip early Monday about a man threatening to jump off a local bridge. The man was later spotted around 10 a.m. standing on Parrotts Ferry bridge, which crosses the New Melones Reservoir.
Long said he talked to the man for about 15 to 20 minutes to try to “talk him down.”
“We spoke mainly about his family, his life,” he said. “He didn’t want to speak to me.”
Long said he was lucky to be able to catch the man after running from up to 50 feet away once the man began to climb over the railing.
“There’s no way you can train for that,” Long said. “I was very lucky that it worked.”
From there, other deputies from the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office and search and rescue volunteers helped pull the man to safety, Long and the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office said. The group eventually used a rope to bring the man back over the railing.
This photo released by the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office UAV Team shows a man being rescued from the bridge.
The man was taken to a hospital without suffering injuries. Long said he heard that the man was getting mental health support.
Long, a military veteran who has been with the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office for five years, said that he did not “grasp the severity of the situation at the time. I was just doing what my instinct was to do.”
He also said that he was not a hero.
“I’m a first responder,” he said. “This is what we do. We are there for people’s worst and their best days.”
“We always want to get there before something happens, and thankfully this time we were,” he said.
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