Sheriff’s deputies rescue troubled woman from ledge

SAN JOSE >> Deputies with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office are being hailed as heroes for talking a troubled woman out of jumping from a ledge onto Interstate 280 earlier this week.

The sheriff’s office received a report of a woman running in and out of traffic on South Bascom Avenue near the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center at about 11:20 a.m. Wednesday. As deputies raced to the scene, she sprinted north past Moorpark Avenue and climbed over a chain-link fence onto a narrow ledge overlooking the freeway 30 feet below.

There was minimal footing on the ledge and the woman was clinging to the fence when deputies arrived.

Deputies called for the far right lanes of the freeway to be shut down, then used bolt cutters to reach the woman, who was described as “irate” and “non-compliant,” the sheriff’s office said. Employing crisis intervention techniques, deputies Matthew Carroll and Andrew Galaviz convinced the woman not to jump and talked her off the ledge.

“I am extremely proud of the heroics, calm, and critical thinking displayed by these deputies,” said Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith in a statement.

“They applied their crisis intervention techniques to resolve this situation with the best possible outcome, no one was injured and the victim will receive appropriate resources.”