San Jose: Freeways reopened after hourslong negotiation with man on overcrossing

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Source: San Jose Mercury News

SAN JOSE -- After an hourslong standoff that caused massive traffic backups, a man who had been standing on a highway overpass was taken into custody Monday evening, authorities said.

The man, who officials said may have had a knife, had perched himself on the highest overcrossing of the Interstate 680-Highway 101 connector, causing traffic congestion on highways that spilled over onto downtown streets for several hours Monday.

The report of the male pedestrian on the roadway was called in just after 1 p.m. at the apex of the connector linking the southbound lanes of I-680 and Highway 101, according to the California Highway Patrol.


For several hours, a negotiator was on scene trying to talk the man down, according to CHP Officer Ross Lee. The unidentified man's relatives later came to the scene to try to coax him down.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_27905127/san-jose-traffic-marred-at-interstate-680-highway

[NYC_SKP]

2. Oh good grief. This state sucks for traffic already but this shit is just fucking stupid.

The poor individual needs help but I cannot support letting it take house and hours to get him off.

Stop traffic below him, get the fire and rescue out there with a soft landing device and come at him from all angles and get him the hell out of there to get treatment.

Negotiator? Why? Just safely get him down.

Jesus H Christ.

[catchnrelease]

3. Yes!

I completely agree that these people need help, but having been stuck on the freeway for one of these situations in SoCal years ago, I have to say it's incredibly frustrating to be trapped for hours while this is going on. End of the day and you just want to get home and now the entire freeway and surface street system is in chaos. I've never seen a mess like that to this day...every surface street on both sides of the freeway (210 in San Gabriel Valley) was gridlocked for miles in every direction. This was before cell phones so it was not possible to let people at home know what had happened to you.

Made it even worse to find out that the person had done the same thing in the past. Stands on the overpass and threatens to jump. As you said, set up a safe place for them to fall and force them down and get them help. I realize that this sounds cold hearted, and unsympathetic to the clearly disturbed person but there has to be a better way than allowing such disruption to take place.

[NYC_SKP]

4. Thanks.

I rather expected someone to come to the defense of the poor person.

Well, for all the hours of drama, the outcome was about the same as just taking them off the bridge right away.

Some UC kids shut down highway 17 a few weeks back, miles from campus, to protest tuition hikes.

I was livid, they cost thousands of regular working class people hours and hours and accomplished nothing.

A bunch here jumped to their defense as if they were heroes.

They've never driven highway 17.

The students were arrested and are suspended and might be expelled for their negligent acts.