Trucks line up under highway bridge to block suicidal man from jumping

When a suicidal Man standing on a bridge over one of Detroit's busiest interstate highways threatened to end his life by jumping, police coordinated a jaw-dropping save. They put a shout-out for help to the big rig truck drivers in the immediate area and their plea was quickly answered.

Police were able to orchestrate the side-by-side parking of those semi-Trucks on both sides of the highway while shutting down traffic in both directions.

The trucks formed a make-shift ledge between the would-be jumper and the highway pavement below.

Truck drivers to the rescue

The 13 semi-trucks parked side-by-side so part of their trucks made a ledge on either side of the bridge. This way there was no clear space for the suicidal man to jump and hit the pavement below. The top of the trailers of these trucks, along with their rigs, formed a make-shift platform.

If the man had jumped from that bridge, he would have fallen to that platform below which was made up of the 13 semi-trucks lining up under that bridge. It would have been a short jump, unlike the life-threatening jump the man originally had in his scope.

Threatening to jump

It appeared he planned to jump from the bridge onto the pavement of the busy highway below and if the fall didn't kill him the on-coming traffic may have. According to KXAN local news out of Detroit, Michigan, the unidentified man was threatening to end his life early Tuesday on that bridge that spans over the eastbound and westbound lanes of Interstate 696. Police scrambled to find a way to keep this man safe.

Traffic closed down for hours

Besides coordinating with the 13 truck drivers, the police closed down the highway with their quick thinking. It took several hours for the emergency crews to talk the man off the bridge, but eventually, he did come down from his perch high above the highway.

The MSP Detroit Police posted a tweet while this was going on and in that tweet, they wrote how there was a man in that photo still struggling with the thought of ending his own life. It was a very sobering tweet that also included a direct number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. That number is 1-800-273-8255.

Could have gone either way

People discussing this incident on Reddit were in awe of what these truckers did to save the life of a stranger. While they didn't come up with the idea, as soon as they heard their help was needed they were happy to do it.

Some of the discussion centered on the individual who was tasked with the deed of talking this man out of killing himself. One commenter wrote how they were in awe of the people who talked people off a ledge, so to speak.

While this incident ended with the man safely coming down from the bridge, Reddit users suggested how this event could have gone south at a moment's notice. The man could have just decided to say goodbye and jump at any time, and while thankfully this did not happen, it has happened in similar incidents before.