SHINE — A Sequim man credited with stopping a woman from jumping off the Hood Canal Bridge earlier this month said he couldn’t have done it without help from others.
Jason Doig of Sequim said during an interview Monday that if Dan Powell of Marrowstone Island and Arthur Green of Sequim hadn’t helped him pull the woman back onto the road, she might not have survived.
Powell, a lieutenant with the South King County Fire Training Consortium and a rescue diver, said Doig did what few others would be able to do during that kind of situation and that’s what saved the unidentified woman’s life.
“Jason reacted,” Powell said. “That’s the difference for her.”
Powell was driving west on the bridge, returning from work in Renton, when he noticed a car parked in the middle of the bridge near the lift span at about 5 p.m. March 3.
He watched the woman get out of the vehicle and start walking “with purpose” straight toward the north side of the bridge, he said.
“I’m a firefighter and I’ve seen this look a few times,” Powell said. “She just had that look that something wasn’t right.”
He stopped about 100 feet away from her and tried to approach the woman, but she spotted him.
That’s when he noticed Doig, who had been traveling east so he could catch a flight in Seattle, sneaking toward her.
Powell said he kept her attention so she wouldn’t spot Doig sneaking up behind her. The two made eye contact and knew what their plan was, they said.
Powell said that by the time Doig reached the woman, she was standing on the guardrail on the north side of the bridge, facing the road with her arms out.
Doig said he grabbed her as soon as he could and the two scuffled for a moment, with her hitting him in the face a few times.
As soon as Doig reached the woman, Powell sprinted toward him to help.
“I knew as soon as [Doig] made contact it was game on,” Powell said.
The woman jumped while Doig was holding her arms.
Doig said there was a chance he could have gone over the edge with her because she grabbed the back of his shirt.
But he held onto her arm as she jumped, with her hanging over the side of the bridge until Powell reached him, Doig said.
“Dan got there in time to grab her other side,” Doig said.
Green, who was driving Doig, then came over and helped the two pull the woman onto the bridge and away from the edge.
As they waited several minutes for first responders to arrive, the woman’s anger toward Doig and Powell turned into sadness, Doig said.
“After she realized we weren’t going to let her back up there, everything turned to sadness,” he said. “That’s one thing I won’t forget.”
As she was sitting on the road crying, two women went over and covered her with a blanket, doing what they could to console her.
Doig didn’t know their names but said he was impressed.
It took several more minutes for law enforcement and paramedics to arrive on the scene, he said.
“It was a great sight to see those lights coming down the hill,” he said.
What surprised Doig was how few people stopped to help.
Traffic continued to pass on the bridge at about the speed limit until the woman was pulled back onto the bridge, Powell said.
“What amazed me is how many people didn’t get out of their vehicles,” Doig said. “You look back and there’s so many people just sitting in their vehicles watching this unfold, even after we had her back on the roadway.”
Doig said he was amazed with how law enforcement and paramedics handled the situation. He said paramedics did what they could to comfort her and were professional.
They checked Doig for injuries — he was bleeding after the scuffle — and then directed their attention to the woman, he said.
Port Ludlow Fire &Rescue transported the woman to Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton.
Powell said the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Port Ludlow Fire &Rescue, Poulsbo Fire Department and the State Patrol responded.
“I was impressed with the efforts of everyone who stopped and helped the woman during the incident,” Powell wrote in a report.
“It was a highly stressful incident, and it was great to have help and support from bystanders stopping their vehicles and assisting.”
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
