Woman Trapped on Raised Drawbridge

Pedestrians in Fort Lauderdale, Florida witnessed an unusual incident Saturday morning: A woman in a hot-pink T-shirt clinging to raised, railroad track drawbridge. The woman, 55 year-old Wanda McGowa...
Woman Trapped on Raised Drawbridge
Written by
  • Pedestrians in Fort Lauderdale, Florida witnessed an unusual incident Saturday morning: A woman in a hot-pink T-shirt clinging to raised, railroad track drawbridge. The woman, 55 year-old Wanda McGowan, was not attempting to become the next Spiderman, but rather found herself stuck on the bridge after completing a 5K walk for breast cancer earlier that morning.

    Why the woman was on the bridge, no one knows. One spectator, Phillip Glazebrook, figures she was crossing the bridge to take some photos. In describing the incident, Glazebrook stated, “She was just stuck in this Jesus Christ position. The woman was frozen and terrified. I’m sure she must have been in absolute shock to be stuck in that position.”

    Glazebrook was not the only on-looker to find some sort of symbology in the woman’s predicament: “To me that just helped in the fight for cancer. So many people that are ready to give up the fight and still are hanging in there – that just symbolized that, ’cause she could have let go at any minute and she didn’t,” stated witness Ashanicka Powell.

    Much like Glazebrook, Powell could only postulate as to why the woman was on the bridge: “To tell you the truth, honestly I thought it was probably like a stunt or something, it was just that unbelievable. I really didn’t think she honestly was trapped up there at first.”

    The bridge is controlled remotely from Tallahassee, a city over 400 miles away. The bridge only lowers when trains are approaching it, and raises again approximately 2 minutes after the train has passed. Due to the imminent danger presented by pedestrians approaching the bridge, many “No Trespassing” signs are posted around the bridge.

    Authorities are still trying to discover why McGowan ignored the posted signs. McGowan’s neighbor told reporters at Local10 News in Miami that McGowan has really bad vision, perhaps prohibiting her from being able to clearly read the signs.

    Whatever the reason, McGowan could face charges for trespassing on the tracks. The city of Ft. Lauderdale released a statement concerning the issue, stating, “Ninety-nine percent of the time we would [press charges]” for trespassing on the tracks. Cops are still trying to determine the reasoning behind McGowan’s trespassing before they make a decision.

    Matt Little, spokesman for the city of Ft. Lauderdale, commented on the severity of the issue: “We are thankful that the individual involved in this life-threatening incident survived. The decision to trespass on private property was an unfortunate, poor choice that endangered the trespasser’s life as well as the lives of the first responders.”

    If Glazeman’s before-mentioned comment was truly apt, McGowan would have been in no trouble at all; After all, we all know that Jesus could walk on water and would have had no need to hold on for dear-life.

    Image via Twitter

    Get the WebProNews newsletter delivered to your inbox

    Get the free daily newsletter read by decision makers

    Subscribe
    Advertise with Us

    Ready to get started?

    Get our media kit