Northbound Interstate 5 closed due to person threatening to jump from Del Mar Heights overpass
A person moving back and forth across the edge of an overpass, threatening to jump into the lanes below, shut down both north and soutbound lanes of Interstate 5 in Del Mar Heights on Friday.
The incident was first reported around 11:40 a.m. on the Del Mar Heights Road overpass, according to online California Highway Patrol logs.
A SigAlert was issued early in the afternoon, and northbound lanes for the freeway and on the overpass were shut down by 12:30 p.m., according to CalTrans. As of 4:30 p.m., lanes on the northbound and southbound sides were closed going into the rush hour, due to the individual running back and forth along the overpass railing over both sides of traffic, according to the log.
Crisis negotiators were at the scene.
The San Diego Police Department, which responded to the scene, told commuters on social media to expect “significant traffic delays … for the time being.”
Commuters stuck in traffic reported that they had gone only a handful of miles over the course of three hours Friday afternoon. Many drivers were seen staring at their phones or trying to find freeway exits that were already jammed with traffic.
The traffic from northbound I-5 was spreading into surface streets and other freeways heading into the late afternoon. CHP maps showed a highly congested northbound Interstate 15, as well as stoppages on the southbound Interstate 5 as far north as Solana Beach.
