History repeats for Vickers’ son in daring rescue on bridge girder

The son of Parliament Hill shooting hero Kevin Vickers is again being commended for his part in saving a life.

Miramichi police Const. Andrew Vickers was called Tuesday morning to the city’s Centennial Bridge, where a 19-year-old woman had climbed onto the outside girder and appeared to be getting ready to jump.

Deputy police chief Brian Cummings said Thursday the woman was “about 15 feet above the roadway on one of the steel girders of the bridge hanging out over the water,” which was perhaps about 100 feet below.

When Vickers arrived, he climbed out after her, Sgt. Dana Hicks said.

“Vickers got out onto the girder with the young lady to prevent her from falling or jumping off, at considerable risk to himself,” Hicks said in a news release.

A passing motorist saw what was happening, stopped his vehicle and climbed out to secure Vickers’s ankles until Const. Bradley Gallant arrived, Hicks said.

Gallant, a trained hostage negotiator, was able to talk with the woman, and “after about 10 minutes, I’m sure what seemed like an eternity, they were able to talk her back in,” Cummings said.

Kevin Vickers, who famously shot gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau in 2014 while Parliament’s sergeant-at-arms, commended his son on Twitter, saying that he was doing “God’s work,” and that he was proud of him.

The elder Vickers is now Canada’s ambassador to Ireland.

In fact, it wasn’t the first time Andrew Vickers helped save a woman’s life.

Vickers jumped into the frigid Miramichi river in October 2011 to rescue a woman after a car crash.