The bridge tender who was operating a drawbridge in West Palm Beach when a 79-year old woman plummeted six stories below the open span has been arrested and charged in her death.
Artissua Lafay Paulk, the tender on duty when Carol Wright, 79, plunged to her death, now faces one count of manslaughter by culpable negligence. Paulk was arrested last week in connection with the Feb. 6 incident, according to the West Palm Beach Police Department.
Police said Wright was walking her bike across the span toward West Palm Beach and was within 10 feet of the barrier arms that halt traffic when the drawbridge started to move.
“The woman tried to hang on. There was a bystander nearby who tried to help her, but tragically she fell five or six stories below where she died landing on solid concrete below,” West Palm Beach police spokesperson Mike Jachles said at the time.
The Florida Department of Transportation said in its report released on Mar. 17 that the bridge tender said she checked multiple times and did not see the woman before opening the span that afternoon.
The FDOT report said she told investigators that she walked out on the balcony before and after turning on the red lights and lowering gates to stop traffic, made two announcements on loudspeakers, and ultimately stepped outside three times to make sure no one was on the bridge, the Palm Beach Post reported.
Surveillance video will show that this account is false, according to attorney Lance C. Ivey, representing the dead woman’s family.
“I believe that when we get the video evidence of this incident, it will reveal unequivocally that the bridge tender’s statement doesn’t align with the true facts,” Ivey told local station WPTV.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for Paulk’s phone. Paulk surrendered her phone to investigators on Feb. 17, and they determined Paulk was not using her phone at the time of the incident.
Paulk was booked and transported to the county’s main detention center. She faces one count of manslaughter by culpable negligence.
Paulk was cooperative with detectives throughout the investigation, police said. The Palm Beach Post reported she was “distraught” at the scene of the fatal fall.
FDOT maintains the bridge, but the bridge tenders are staffed by a private state contractor.
Like all Florida drawbridges, the Royal Park Bridge, which connects West Palm Beach to Palm Beach, is equipped with bells and whistles to alert drivers and pedestrians that the drawbridge is going up.
This is a absolute tragedy for the victim and the bridge operator.
If the whistle and siren were operative along with the lights and the drop down vehicle stopping device, it would appear to me that the fault lies with the lady walking her bike across the bridge. Even if all of those safety features did not alert her to the fact that the bridge was going up, you would think the rising of the road in front of her would have been a pretty solid clue. I agree it was a tragedy for the victim, but it is not the bridge operator’s fault that she ignored all the obvious warning signs and kept on walking.
You have obviously never actually seen a drawbridge opening before. If you had you would know that if a person was already halfway across when the bridge started to open they would indeed realize it was moving, but it would be FAR too late to return to safety before the bridge opened enough to send you flying. The story also does NOT say exactly where the lady with the bike was when the operator supposedly activated lights, siren and gates. She could have been (and most likely was) already far out on the bridge by that time. At this point it may or may not have been the operators fault. Either the operator really never checked the bridge before opening it or it was a tragic accident because the operator just never saw the lady with her bike.
Maybe, the 79 year women was deaf and didn’t hear the sirens? Though, she could have seen the flashing lights? At that age should have not been alone, a real tragedy to have fallen so far down and into concrete. The pain that poor women must have felt.
Biden, worst than Clinton and Jim Carter. You can add the Arab Oduma
Biden Maybe Worse Than B. Clinton or J. Carter but as past presidents go, None Was WORSE Than DERANGED, DANGEROUS donald & TWO-FACED, TRASHY trump, That SHIT, CRAP In Human Form, That M-FUCKING SICKO!
are u kidding me he didn’t run our economy into the ground put your petty opinions about him aside to see that
Isn’t time to wake up open your eyes and mind and shut up. Got to love lib tards
Comments from G.W. are a perfect example of just how sick, hateful, perverted and unAmerican the Leftist Democrat has become. Although our elections always represented different views of what was best for America, never has the Democrat party stooped to such depths of hatred and total disdain for everything that is America’s past and what Democrats previously cherished an valued. The Democrats now simply hate America and everyone who does not agree with their sick perverted ideology. God help us all if Democrats retain power.
If I didn’t believe in our rights to free speech I’d say YOU should be censored/cancelled, as the Dems believe, for your disgustingly dirty mouth.
Whether or not you like Trump, your language tells of your ignorance. People like you gives us insight to the utter hatred people like you feel now. God help us🙏🏻
Wow that was a huge lack of intelligence on GW part It’s amazing the Links you people will go to show the Deaths of your stupidity has no ends!!!!!!!!