Police talk man down from I-70 bridge
BELLE VERNON – One eastbound lane of Interstate 70 was closed for about 45 minutes Tuesday afternoon as police talked a suicidal man off the infrastructure of the Speers-Belle Vernon Bridge. The Belle Vernon Borough Building, which houses Southwest Regional police station and the volunteer fire department, is immediately to the south of the bridge. Southwest Regional officer John Loughner was just reporting for duty around 3:30 p.m. when he noticed the man at the top of the arch of the suspension bridge.
“We immediately contacted the Pennsylvania State Police, since it’s their bridge,” said Southwest Regional Police Chief John Hartman.
Hartman said the state police had already received six or seven calls from passing motorists by the time Loughner noticed the man and called in.
Hartman said he and Loughner then went to the scene as well, and along with other officers, spoke to the man for about 45 minutes until the man decided to climb down to the bridge surface.
“He said he got up there around 3,” Hartman said.
Hartman said the man appeared to be in his mid to late 30s. There were reports at the scene that he was from Washington. The man’s identity was not released.
The man did not offer a reason for climbing the bridge structure at the scene. State police took the man to Monongahela Valley Hospital.
The Belle Vernon and Charleroi volunteer fire departments had their boats in the water under the bridge as a precaution. Southwest Regional, Charleroi and Fayette City police assisted state police on the scene.