New Jersey State Police said the search continues for a 77-year-old man who jumped off the New Hope-Lambertville Toll Bridge into the Delaware River Tuesday.
Troopers responded at 9:46 a.m. March 5, to the bridge in Lambertville City, Hunterdon County.
Based on a preliminary investigation, they said Wednesday, a 77-year-old man from Ringoes, N.J., jumped off the bridge into the river. State Police said the man has not been located, and search efforts are ongoing.
Joseph Donnelly, deputy executive director of communications for the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, said the man jumped off the upstream side of the bridge and was last seen 50 yards from the bridge.
“It is heartbreaking,” said one post on a Lambertville Facebook group.
Donnelly said rescue personnel conducted a search Tuesday, but called it off just prior to 9:30 p.m. “The current would have been strong,” he said, adding murky would be the normal condition after a rainfall.
According to Cameron Wunderlin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mt. Holly, N.J., the river was 4 feet above “gauge zero,” a baseline, or approximate, measurement from the bottom of the river, on Tuesday. It is expected to rise to a high of 5.7 feet early Friday, well below the flood stage of 13 feet.
Among those responding to the rescue call Tuesday, according to Donnelly, were Bucks County Special Operations Public Safety Dive Team, Point Pleasant Fire Co., New Hope-Eagle Fire Co., and Lambertville-New Hope Ambulance and Rescue Squad, as well as the New Jersey State Police and the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.
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