A teenager in Texas is lucky to be alive after he tried to end his own life by jumping off a highway overpass during rush hour. Authorities received a call about the suicidal teen, and Motor Officer Deric Sheriff rushed to the scene.
Sheriff began to stop traffic on the busy highway and asked a truck driver for some help. He directed the driver to park his 18-wheeler underneath the overpass in case the teenager decided to jump.
“I was trying to find a tall enough semi-trailer that would work because there were a couple of flatbeds that would not have been of any use,” Sherriff told FOX4.
Sheriff's plan worked, and the teen jumped off the overpass but landed on the top of Dwayne Crawford's truck.
“As soon as I went under and started under the bridge, I looked up. The young man looks down at me, and I thought, ‘Oh, man. He’s serious,’” Crawford told the news station. “As soon as I got under the bridge with my tractor and got the trailer under it, I felt a thump.”
Sheriff's body camera, which he inadvertently left on following a previous traffic stop caught the scary moment when the teen jumped off the bridge.
“It actually worked!” Sheriff said. “Because no sooner did this semi get stopped under the bridge, the subject jumped off the bridge and landed on top of his trailer.”
The boy was not hurt in the fall and is receiving mental health treatment.
“I feel good about it,” Crawford said. “The young man’s going to get help. The bottom line: he needed help.”