Man jumps from Augusta Road overpass onto I-20

Lexington, SC (Paul Kirby) A man jumped from the Augusta Road overpass onto I-20 west Tuesday afternoon as a Lexington police officer watched in frustration knowing that he had arrived seconds too late to intervene. According to Corporal Cameron Mortenson, a spokesman for the Lexington Police Department, he received a call himself from a citizen telling him that a man was on the bridge threatening to jump. He immediately called the nearest patrol car and had it respond to the bridge. Just as the officer pulled up, the man jumped. Mortenson said that the man’s jump from the bridge was almost instantaneous with the arrival of their officer. “As soon as he rolled to a stop, the man jumped,” Mortenson said. “Our officer had just arrived and was just getting out of the car. There was absolutely nothing he could do.”

The police officer immediately notified Lexington County’s Central Communications Center and they dispatched an ambulance and several fire units to the scene. I-20 was closed for a period while the man was being attended to. He was transported to the trauma center at Palmetto Richland with serious injuries as a result of the act.