S.C. woman falls to death off bridge assisting in wreck
GREENVILLE, S.C. - Authorities say a 29-year-old woman fell to her death off a bridge as she tried to help people involved in a wreck in Greenville.
Greenville County Coroner Parks Evans said in a statement that Jessica Smith was a passenger in a car on U.S. Highway 276 and saw a wrecked truck on the road's bridge over I-385 around 1:30 a.m. Saturday.
Witnesses told CBS affiliate WSPA in Spartanburg that after Smith found no one in the cab of the truck, she leaned over the edge of the bridge, yelled, heard a voice, placed both her legs on the edge of the bridge.
"She asked me to pull over. She was the one that wanted me to pull over to see if he was okay," said Jessica's Cousin, Justin Michael Adams, who was also at the scene of the accident.
The coroner says Smith jumped off the bridge thinking the ground was just below her feet, but instead fell more than 20 feet to her death.
Family told WSPA Smith was a Certified Nursing Assistant and a mother.
"She had a heart of gold. She would do anything for you. She would try to help anybody that needed help," said Betty Smith, Jessica's grandmother. "What she was doing wasn't stupid or careless. She was trying to help somebody else, to maybe save another life and ended up losing her own."