As Motorists Raged, Officers Kept Man From Jumping

Desperate to save the life of an Oxnard man threatening to leap from a freeway overpass, Ventura police briefly considered borrowing a giant air cushion from the Los Angeles Fire Department to break his fall.

But as a fire department rescue unit raced along the Ventura Freeway from a Tarzana fire station Wednesday afternoon, Ventura police canceled the request.

Such cushions have been used numerous times in Los Angeles to thwart jumpers and could have significantly shortened a four-hour traffic jam that followed. But Ventura police said they feared the man--49-year-old Steven Hoosier--would jump if he saw a crew moving the air cushion into place.

Before Hoosier was talked down after four hours, the ensuing freeway closure incurred the wrath of angry, tired and frustrated rush-hour motorists--some who urged the distraught man to leap. Ventura police said Thursday their options were limited and they made the correct choice.

“It’s a situation where if you don’t do anything and people are backed up, they get in an uproar, verses doing something and he jumps,” said Ventura Police Sgt. Darin Schindler, who supervised a team of 15 officers called to the scene. “Then everyone would be saying you should have given him space. We can’t make everybody happy.”

As Hoosier dangled his legs from a railroad trestle over the Ventura Freeway near the California Street exit, Schindler said he and other officers brainstormed for the best way to quickly and safely conclude the incident. Schindler considered bringing in the giant air cushion, but decided against it because of Hoosier’s threats.

These cushions, often used for movie stunts, are a popular life-saving device in Los Angeles, said Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. The department receives about three requests a week to use the cushion, Humphrey said. Often, just the sight of the cushion being deployed keeps people from leaping.

“Our experience has been that regardless of what [jumpers] say, we will have it in place to break their fall,” Humphrey said. “The freeway is the most effective surface to deploy this thing. We typically will deploy under the overpass out of [the jumper’s] sight. It can inflate in less than 60 seconds.”

Schindler said he understood the frustration of motorists trapped in the dinner-time traffic tie-up, caused when California Highway Patrol officers closed the freeway, first in the northbound direction and later southbound, as well. The safe outcome was worth the trouble, Schindler said.

Officers along with county mental health workers eventually talked Hoosier off the trestle’s ledge and placed him in the care of Ventura County mental health officials.

“It’s an inconvenience but the preservation of someone’s life takes precedence over someone’s inconvenience,” Schindler said.

CHP Officer Dave Webb said the freeway closure backed up traffic south past Las Posas Road in Camarillo and north past Padre Juan Canyon Road near Faria Beach.

Officials said Thursday that Hoosier had previously been in contact with county mental health workers about his personal problems. He remained in a locked facility at the Ventura County Medical Center on Thursday evening and could remain there through the weekend for observation, a mental health official said. No decision has been made to file criminal charges against Hoosier.

Up to this point, Ventura County Fire Department officials “haven’t seen the need” for purchasing emergency air cushions because incidents where they would be used are rare, said Capt. Vaughan Miller, who coordinates the department’s urban search and rescue unit.

“These things don’t happen very frequently,” he said. “Very often, the victims are not approachable and the best course is to get the police department psychologist and attempt to counsel them.”

Rescuers also considered placing a flatbed truck across the freeway to shorten the 35-foot fall.

Schindler said officers never considered rushing Hoosier, who could have jumped and possibly taken one or more officers over the side with him.

People caught in the thousands of cars delayed by the incident had other ideas.

After being stuck in traffic for nearly two hours near the Main Street onramp, Ojai resident Kelly Peters nearly missed coaching his 10-year-old son’s soccer match.

“I was saying, ‘Just push him, so I could go home,’ ” said Peters, a driver for United Parcel Service, who had just left work in Ventura. “It was a nightmare.”

Other motorists felt similarly frustrated, said Ventura police Sgt. Mark Stadler.

Stadler, who spent more than three hours lying on a bed of gravel about 10 feet from Hoosier, said he could hear motorists below screaming for the man to jump.

“In reality, you have a human being in a crisis situation,” Stadler said. “[Hoosier] asked me to open up the traffic. He wanted people to be able to go home.”