The operator of a drawbridge in the city of West Palm Beach (southeast Florida) was arrested and charged with negligent homicide for the death of a woman from 60 She was walking on the footpath of the bridge for years when she picked it up and fell several meters.
According to the WESH channel, the prosecution indicates in the court documents of the case that the detainee, Artissua Lafay Paulk, aged 43, lied when he told the police that before raising the Royal Park Bridge on February 6 at around one o’clock in the afternoon he had checked several times that there was no one circulating.
Carol Wright, who was walking along the bridge’s pedestrian path carrying her bicycle in her hands, was approaching the non-raising part of the infrastructure when the bridge started to get up.
According to the police, he tried to hold on to a bar, but could not hold on and fell about 60 feet (18.3 meters) despite the attempts of a person to help her.
The Prosecutor’s Office alleged that, before lying to the Police, Paulk spoke with his supervisor by text message about what he should tell the agents and agreed with him to delete those communications.
Those messages were later recovered and are part of the evidence in this case.
The WESH channel indicated that although the operator claimed to do visually checked four times if there was anyone on the bridge before raising it, a security video shows that during her shift there were only three exits to the balcony for the check, between 8: 03 and 9: 03 in the morning.
Wright died shortly before one o’clock in the afternoon.
Paulk’s way of acting shows a “cruel disregard for human life and the safety of a person”, says the Prosecutor’s Office in its indictment.
The lawyer for the victim’s family, Lance Ivey, stated that the bridge operator that day did not do even “the minimum” necessary to protect the lives of people who use the Royal Park Bridge .
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