Several witnesses gaped on Wednesday afternoon when they saw the footbridge in Tønsberg open while a woman clung to the railing. – It is an incident that is not pleasant for us or for the woman who experienced this. So we are happy that it went as well as it did, says business manager Øyvind Myhre in technical operations in Tønsberg municipality. A woman was on the footbridge when it opened in Tønsberg on Wednesday afternoon. Will evaluate the incident The 130-metre footbridge from the pier in Tønsberg and over to Kaldnes will be opened so that boats can sail here. The bridge is opened at fixed times during the summer. – The routines were followed as normal when opening the bridge. This means that a ringing signal goes out for quite a while, then the barriers go down. We ensure that there is no one on the bridge. And then we open the bridge, says Myhre. – When it is empty, we initiate the opening and let boats pass, he says. In addition, it is notified with a red light when the barriers go down. Myhre says they have documentation on camera that the woman went past the barriers. news does not know the woman’s identity and thus has not received her version of the case. – Was there no one in the watchtower who saw that there was someone on the bridge? – No. – Shouldn’t a camera pick up that there is someone on the bridge? – When the booms are down and the bridge is empty, the bridge watch must focus on the crossing of boats. Will look at the routines He says the municipality must assess its routines when such things happen. – We must evaluate the incident, follow it up internally and see if there is anything we can do differently. When we have had a near miss, we have to evaluate it. Business manager Øyvind Myhre says the incident was not pleasant for them or the woman. Photo: private He says they would not have pressed the button for the bridge to go up if they had known there was a person there. Municipal manager Jan Ronald Eide for property and technical services says it is a serious incident. The municipality is looking at further measures to notify that the bridge is going up. – We are discussing whether we should perhaps have a somewhat longer barrier or whether we should also have an additional sign on the barrier, which makes it even clearer. Myhre states that they have had thousands of bridge openings and that a similar incident has only happened once before. The municipality does not know who the woman is, but would like to speak to her. Municipal manager Jan Ronald Eide in Tønsberg municipality says he wants the woman to get in touch so they can talk about the incident. Photo: Robert Hansen / news Terrifying Waitress Madelen Jørvum, who works at a restaurant on the pier in Tønsberg, saw the incident. She thinks it was a terrifying experience. – The woman remained squatting and clinging to the bridge for quite a long time after it lowered, Jørvum told news on Wednesday.
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– We have to see if there is anything we can do differently – news Vestfold and Telemark – Local news, TV and radio
