Last night, investigators combed section 301 of the Coliseum where a young woman jumped 15 minutes after the Raiders game ended. Witnesses said she was up there alone, and intentionally fell despite pleas from a couple dozen people below urging her not to jump. One of them actually tried to catch her.
"Oh she dropped so fast I could hardly believe it. Her knees had hit this gentleman in the chest and knocked him to the concrete and she kind of bounced off and hit the side of her head on the concrete," said Woody Chamble, witness.
The woman and the man who tried to catch her were taken to Highland Hospital. He was said to be conscious before his arrival, having been able to tell investigators his account of what happened. The woman's injuries are said to be far more serious, even critical. Authorities say she would have died immediately had it not been for the man who broke her fall.
"He saved her life quite honestly at his own expense. He got very seriously hurt himself, but he absolutely saved her life," said Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. JD Nelson.
Falls at stadiums have made headlines recently. Just last week, a Buffalo Bills fan slid down a handrail and fell about 30 feet into the stands below. While in the Bay Area, a teenager was seriously injured when he fell from the third deck of the Coliseum in December. Then in September, a man died from a fall at a pedestrian walkway outside Candlestick Park.
As for this latest incident, investigators don't know what motivated the woman to jump.
