AUGUSTA -- A quick response by rescuers was not enough Tuesday morning to save a man who jumped from the Calumet Bridge and into the Kennebec River.
Augusta Police Sgt. Christopher Shaw said rescue crews attempted to resuscitate the man after he was pulled ashore, but they were unable to revive him. Temperatures Tuesday morning were in the 20s.
“Between the hypothermia and the water in his lungs, there was no way they could,” Shaw said.
Police by Tuesday afternoon had not yet identified the man, who they described as approximately 5 feet, 8 inches tall and around 265 pounds. The man, believed to be in his 50s, had a light mustache and short salt-and-pepper hair, Shaw said.
A witness called police at 11:49 a.m. after watching the man jump from the bridge, Shaw said.
The first rescue crews arrived at the Front Street parking lot within two minutes.
Firefighters donned cold-water rescue gear and waded into the river to retrieve the man, Shaw said. He arrived at the emergency room at MaineGeneral Medical Center, on the other side of the river, at 12:16 p.m.
People have survived jumps from the much higher Cushnoc Crossing bridge north of downtown on Route 3; the most recent was Christmas night of 2006.
No one has jumped off the Memorial Bridge, just south of the Calumet bridge, in 28 years, according to reports. That bridge has a high safety fence that is difficult to scale.
Shaw said strong currents around the lower Calumet bridge make surviving a jump from there difficult.
He said a jump off the bridge “happens about once a year.”