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

[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.