As Drivers Vented Rage, Officers Negotiated

Desperate to save the life of an Oxnard man threatening to leap from a freeway overpass, Ventura police briefly considered borrowing a giant air cushion from the Los Angeles Fire Department to break his fall.

But as a fire department rescue unit raced along the Ventura Freeway from a Tarzana fire station Wednesday afternoon, Ventura police canceled the request.

Such cushions have been used numerous times in Los Angeles to thwart jumpers and could have significantly shortened a four-hour traffic jam that followed. But Ventura police said they feared the man--49-year-old Steven Hoosier--would jump if he saw a crew moving the air cushion into place.

Before Hoosier was talked down after four hours, the ensuing freeway closure incurred the wrath of angry, tired and frustrated rush-hour motorists--some who urged the distraught man to leap. Ventura police said Thursday their options were limited and they made the correct choice.

“It’s a situation where if you don’t do anything and people are backed up, they get in an uproar, verses doing something and he jumps,” said Ventura Police Sgt. Darin Schindler, who supervised the 15 officers called to the scene. “Then everyone would be saying you should have given him space.”

As Hoosier dangled his legs from a railroad trestle over the Ventura Freeway near the California Street exit, Schindler said he and other officers brainstormed for the best way to quickly and safely conclude the incident. Schindler considered bringing in the giant air cushion, but decided against it because of Hoosier’s threats.

These cushions, often used for movie stunts, are a popular life-saving device in Los Angeles, said Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. The department receives about three requests a week to use the cushion, he said. Often, just the sight of the cushion being deployed keeps people from leaping.

Schindler said he understood the frustration of motorists trapped in the dinner-time traffic tie-up, caused when California Highway Patrol officers closed the freeway. The safe outcome was worth the trouble, Schindler said.