Trooper saves man who attempted suicide

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ? A man who tried to hang himself off an interstate highway bridge was saved Monday by a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer who cut the rope, dropping the man 20 feet onto the edge of a local street.

Emergency dispatchers told Sgt. Paul Mooneyham early Monday morning that callers had reported a man was hanging off the side of a bridge along Interstate 81.

Mooneyham said when he found the man, he was hanging by one arm off the bridge and had a rope tied around his neck. The man jumped when the officer arrived.

Mooneyham said the rope the man used was too short to create the necessary force to break his neck and the trooper was faced with the choice of trying to lift the man up or letting him drop.

“I didn’t have much time to make choices,” he said.

Using his pocket knife, the officer cut the rope to let the man fall, then rushed down an embankment to reach him.

“When I got to him, he wasn’t breathing, but I got the noose off his neck and shook him,” Mooneyham said. “He coughed and started breathing again. I held him until emergency medical services got there.”

Authorities said the 19-year-old man, whom they did not identify, had left a suicide note with instructions on how to distribute his belongings.

After he was revived, the man told Mooneyham he had been despondent about a death in his family.

The man was taken by ambulance to an area hospital.

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Information from: The Greeneville Sun, http://www.greene.xtn.net