A man jumped off the Howard Frankland Bridge in Central Florida causing delays and a water rescue search.
Multiple lanes of the Howard Frankland Bridge were eventually reopened after multiple agencies responded to numerous reports of a man who jumped from the midsection of the hump on the bridge.
The U.S. Coast Guard, St. Petersburg Fire Rescue and multiple other agencies responded to the jumper. The Coast Guard was searching for the man in the water, but no other updates were available at the time.
The Howard Frankland Bridge spans Old Tampa Bay from St. Petersburg to Tampa. It is one of three bridges connecting Hillsborough County and Pinellas County, along with the Gandy Bridge and the Courtney Campbell Causeway. FDOT is rebuilding the existing northbound bridge, which was originally constructed in 1959, and adding capacity to alleviate traffic congestion.
Recently, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office investigated a suicide when a man jumped from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which spans Lower Tampa Bay to connect St. Petersburg to Terra Ceia in Central Florida.
Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline online, at 988, or call the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay by dialing 2-1-1.
UPDATE: Officials later stated that they could not find any evidence that someone had jumped and never located a body.
