Detective’s Grab Prevents Freeway Suicide of Girl, 17

A police detective saved the life of a suicidal 17-year-old girl by grabbing her arm as she stepped off a 40-foot-high freeway overpass in Burbank, authorities said.

“It was a lucky grab,” said Rich Bison, a 17-year veteran of the Burbank Police Department. Bison said the girl dangled from his hands for several seconds before his partner, Detective Eric Rosoff, and California Highway Patrol Officer Mike Clarke grabbed her right arm and pulled her to safety.

Bison said he had been trying to talk the girl out of jumping for about 40 minutes when she suddenly pushed away from the railing, looking downward. “It was obvious in her face she was at that point where she was going to let go,” he said.

Highway Patrol officers closed the Ventura Freeway in both directions about 10:50 a.m., just after the girl was first seen on the edge of the Olive Avenue overpass. The incident caused a massive traffic tie-up in both directions, said Highway Patrol spokeswoman Linda Powell.

The teen-ager, a Burbank resident who attends Monterey Continuation School in that city, was not injured. She was taken to Olive View Medical Center for psychiatric evaluation, Bison said. She told police she was despondent after breaking up with her boyfriend, who had begun dating another girl.

The drama began after the girl and her ex-boyfriend, who lives in Sun Valley, began arguing about his new girlfriend while they walked near the freeway, Burbank Sgt. Don Goldberg said. Distraught, the girl fled from her boyfriend, who belittled her threats of suicide, and climbed over a 3 1/2-foot railing, Goldberg said.