Police were sent to investigate the heartbreaking death of a Florida woman who appeared to be out cyclingin 2022.
The woman was walking on the Royal Park Bridge connecting Palm Beach to downtown West Palm Beach with her bike. The woman was working to walk off the movable span of the bridge. She was within 10 feet of the barrier arms when the drawbridge began to rise.
The movement jolted the woman forward into the mechanism that was opening. A man was on the other side of the barrier. He was able to grab onto her arms, but he couldn't hold onto her grasp.
"She was walking her bike from east to west and had almost reached the furthest point of the moveable span when it went up," police spokesman Mike Jachles told The Palm Beach Post.
"He tried to help her but he wasn't able to hold onto her and she fell about five to six stories below."
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Authorities investigated why the drawbridge started rising before every pedestrian had cleared it.
"At some point it opened," Jachles said.
"The circumstances around that are under investigation by our detectives."
The bridge was closed for six hours following the accident. During that time, rescue workers were able to recover the woman's body. Police did not shared her identity publicly at the time of the incident.
The bridge tender was reported to be "distraught" after the incident. The bridge tender position is staffed by a private state contractor and not the state's Department of Transportation.
