Bridge Claims Another Victim

Harbor Police recovered the body of a 38-year-old San Diego man Sunday minutes after he became the third person in three days to jump off the San Diego-Coronado bridge.

Michael Douglas Harman, a surgical technician at Sharp Cabrillo Hospital, parked his 1985 Ford sedan in the middle of the bridge and jumped over the side at 7:28 a.m., a San Diego County coroner’s spokesman said. He was pulled out of the water 20 minutes later and pronounced dead.

On Friday afternoon, Sven Donald Nelson, 54, a retired Navy commander who resides in Coronado, was killed instantly when he leaped from the bridge, said Deputy Coroner Chuck Bolton. Nelson drove onto the bridge, parked his car, climbed onto the bridge railing and jumped, Bolton said. His body was recovered by Harbor Police within minutes. No note was found in the car.

Early Friday morning, Gail Lynn French, 29, of Oceanside, survived a plunge off the bridge. French, who was improving and listed in fair condition Sunday night at the UC San Diego Medical Center, would be only the second person to survive a fall off the bridge, authorities said.

Witnesses said they heard the woman calling for help from the water just before she was rescued.

“She was conscious and coherent,” Harbor Police Sgt. Dave Little said. “She complained only of being cold.”

He estimated the fall at 211 feet. The toll bridge at its highest point is 220 feet above water.

The only other person to survive a fall was a 3-year-old girl. On Aug. 4, 1985, Angelica Gomez, 24, jumped from the span clutching her young daughter. Gomez was killed, but the child survived.