Proposed Law May Get Jump on Bridge Leapers

The Sheriff’s Department, concerned about people leaping from the bridge over the Pacific Coast Highway in Seal Beach, is seeking a law that would prohibit landing in the water after such a jump.

Capt. Harry Gage of the department’s Harbor Patrol said jumping from bridges such as the one in Seal Beach “is increasingly popular, particularly in the summer months, and creates an extreme danger to the jumpers and to boaters in the water beneath the bridges.”

Gage’s memorandum to the Board of Supervisors does not say how many such incidents occur each year.

Under the proposed law that supervisors will consider next Tuesday, it would be unlawful to jump from “any pier, bridge, rock or precipice” under county control unless jumping is specifically allowed.

At Seal Beach, the bridge is inside city limits and thus outside county jurisdiction, Gage said. The state Transportation Department maintains the bridge. But the water is in county territory.

To cover such situations, the law would bar “landing in the water, rather than jumping or diving,” Gage said.