NCDOT investigates bridges after second fatal fall

What was thought to be a harmless gap has turned deadly in North Carolina.

A motorist traveling on the I-440 Beltline bridges fell to his death over the Thanksgiving holiday. According to the Raleigh News & Observer, Carroll Eames Jr. was coming to the aid of other motorists involved in an accident when he was forced to jump the concrete barrier to avoid getting hit by oncoming traffic. Instead of landing safely, Eames dropped through the gap between the bridges and plunged over 30 ft to the rocky bank on the Crabtree Creek. It was the second death caused by the gap in four years.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is now checking its entire bridge inventory—which totals 17,000—to make sure other spans are not vulnerable to the same type of fatal falls.

“We are trying to determine the magnitude of this problem,” Terry Gibson, NCDOT’s state highway administrator told the News & Observer. “I’ve got our folks across the state studying every bridge in the state that has a gap like this.”

After the first death in 2007 the NCDOT did install a fence on the inner Beltline bridge, raising the guardrail height to 64 in. However, it did not do the same with the outer Beltline bridge, where Eames made his fatal jump.