Seven hours of coaxing saves suicidal man
Reporter: Stephanie Steward
Date published: 07 January 2010
HARDY police officers spent nearly seven hours in the freezing cold talking down a suicidal man from a motorway bridge.
They found the man threatening to jump off the Hollins Road bridge, Hollinwood, at around 7.30pm yesterday and coaxed him to safety at 2am.
The officers managed to get the man blankets to wrap around himself during the dramatic rescue as temperatures plunged to -10.9C (12F) — the coldest night ever in Oldham.
Police closed the Hollins Road roundabout at around 8.15pm as the tense negotiations continued.
The man is believed to have been suffering from depression and was taken straight to hospital but was physically in good shape.
Witnesses said the man was standing on the side of the bridge where cars exit and enter the motorway underneath, with three police officers close by trying to coax him from danger.
Two police officers and a police van blocked the entrance to the roundabout near the Gardeners Arms pub.
Ashlee Connor (21), from Hollins, was at the scene at 8.15pm. She said: “The man was at the end of the roundabout where the Roxy cinema used to be.
“We saw him putting a foot over the motorway bridge and he had a light coloured blanket wrapped around him. Then he took his foot off the bridge and started walking up and down it.
“The entrance to the motorway next to the old Roxy was closed on Oldham Road. The motorway seemed to be still moving but that entrance was closed.”
Her brother, Alan (17), from Royton, saw events at 8.45pm and said: “The man on the bridge had blankets around him and kept shouting to the police ‘I can’t come there because I can’t jump from there.’ He kept going up to the edge of the bridge trying to put his foot over it. He looked aged between mid 30s and 40 .”
A police spokesman said: “His car was found abandoned and the man was located at the bridge at about 7.30pm. A sergeant talked to him for about three hours and then two negotiators arrived to help and he was talked down and then grabbed at 2am. He was taken to hospital where it’s believed he has been sectioned.”
