WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — For the first time, the public is hearing from the bridge tender on duty when a West Palm Beach woman fell to her death from the Royal Park Bridge.
The Florida Department of Transportation, responding to a public records request from WPTV's Contact 5 investigative team, released the incident report from Feb. 6 when 79-year-old Carol Wright died.
It is a word-by-word description of events written by the 25-year-old bridge tender who was working the bridge that day.
Contact 5 was the first station to report on how Palm Beach County fired eight bridge tenders for various mishaps. It also obtained videos of separate incidents where a motorist and a bicyclist were left stranded when bridge tenders opened their draw bridges. It was also the first to unearth 911 tapes from Wright's death.
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The investigative team also reported that West Palm Beach police obtained a search warrant for the cellphone for the bridge tender on duty when Wright died, claiming it was for manslaughter by culpable investigation.
WPTV is not naming the bridge tender because she has not been charged with any crime.
The incident started at 12:50 p.m. when the bridge tender said they got a call from a boat for the bridge to open at 1 p.m.
"I walked out on [the] balcony to see [the] roadway for people walking. I went back in [to] turn my lights to red. I then walked back out on [the] balcony to see that all cars had stopped, and no one was on [the] bridge," stated the bridge tender.
She writes in her recount that a man was running across the bridge and that they waited until he got across to lower the gates.
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Wright had ridden her bike to a book shop on Palm Beach on Feb. 6 and was returning home, according to attorney Lance Ivey, who is representing her family.
According to Ivey, Wright was pushing her bike along a pedestrian walkway on the bridge when the deck suddenly started to ascend. The family's position is that the bridge tender was negligent.
“So, I believe that when we get the video evidence of this incident, it will reveal unequivocally that the bridge tender statement doesn't align with the true facts," Ivey said Thursday on a Facebook live on WPTV's page.
In the incident report, the bridge tender stated, "once I got the bridge lowered, gates up, someone was banging on [the] door. I went to find out, and [the] guy said, 'A lady fell in the water.'"
Also, included in the incident report, is a narrative by the bridge tender's supervisor. A drug test administered at the scene on the bridge tender came up negative, she wrote.
Ivey reiterated the call for additional safety measures.
“Again, you wouldn't need any other additional remedies. If the bridge tenders follow the basic protocols. If they get out of their chair, and go out to the balcony and do these visual inspections, he said.