The grieving family of a 79-year-old woman who lost her life when a draw bridge in Palm Beach, Florida, opened last week allege the accident could have been prevented.
Carol Wright, 79, was crossing the Royal Park Bridge, which links Palm Beach to West Palm Beach, when the bridge started to open. She couldn’t get off and fell to her death.
“She is literally hanging on for dear life, clinging with these 79-year-old hands and arms as best as she could do for several minutes. She gave it a valiant effort. Unfortunately, her arms gave out,” Lance Ivey, an attorney for Wright’s family, told Inside Edition.
Inside Edition walked across the same bridge and found that a loud bell sounded to warn everyone to get off as it was ready to rise. Then, a minute later, the barriers went down to stop traffic. Two minutes later, the bridge rose.
When a young Inside Edition producer took her same route, at a slow pace, it took him a minute to cross.
“I guarantee you she made a valiant effort to get across this bridge and tried valiantly to save her own life,” Ivey attorney said.
Ivey said the operator in the control tower should have seen Wright and stopped the bridge from rising, adding “had he seen her, it would have prevented her death.”
Wright’s niece, Jill Sanchez, emotionally told Inside Edition she imagined she herself would have panicked in that situation like her aunt may have, adding, “who wouldn’t have?”
“At 79 years old, we like to think our senses are as sharp as they can be but what do you do in that situation?” she added.
The bridge company declined to comment on the investigation.