A former Florida bridgetender was sentenced to ten years in prison for violating probation in the death of a 79-year-old woman who fell from an open span of a bridge while walking her bike.
Artissua Lafaye Paulk, 46, learned her fate on Tuesday following the death of 79-year-old Carol Wright, according to online court records. Paulk pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received an initial sentence of eight years probation.
She violated her probation by failing a drug test, failing to perform required community service, and failing to pay court fines.
Prosecutors sought 15 years in prison, while her defense attorney urged the court to reinstate her probation, claiming she was making progress and was a “different person now.”
Paulk did not look out her balcony to see who was on the Royal Park Bridge on the afternoon of February 6, 2022. Wright died after falling through the bridge’s opening, according to authorities.
According to the arrest affidavit, Paulk denied seeing the woman as he opened the bridge. She insisted that she went outside on the balcony of her bridge tower as required to ensure that no one was on the span. However, police said surveillance footage showed Paulk did not go outside.
Witnesses described the horror.
One claimed he tried to save Wright but had nowhere to brace himself and she was too heavy for him to hold, according to documents.
He had to let her go to keep from falling into the opening, according to the documents.
Another witness claimed to have stopped his car at the bridge’s traffic light. He heard Wright call for assistance.
“Ms. Wright then slid down the bridge and out of his view,” officers wrote.
The driver stated that he honked his car horn to get the bridge operator’s attention, but the bridge continued to open.
After the bridge closed and the gates opened, he drove to the bridge tower and used the call box to report Wright’s fall.
“The bridgetender came out of the tower approximately 30 or 45 seconds before the medics arrived,” according to the witness statements.
“He [this particular witness] could not recall hearing any verbal announcement before the bridge opened or if bridgetender was ever outside on the balcony.”
A female witness told cops she didn’t hear an announcement at the time, despite previously hearing them.
A supervisor informed police that bridgetenders must step out onto the balcony three times during the opening procedures to ensure there are no vehicles or people on the bridge before it opens.
However, police say they reviewed surveillance footage from the bridge during Paulk’s shift. They reported that her door did not open for five of the six bridge openings, including the fatal one. They said there was no movement.
The video showed six openings that day. Police also claimed that Paulk kept incomplete records, recording only four of the six openings.
“Paulk said she never saw the individual who fell from the bridge,” authorities wrote. Paulk stated that she had 5 openings today, which she documented in a written log.
Paulk stated that operating the bridge is simple, but it requires ‘a lot of looking’ because there is no sensor or warning that alerts her if someone is on the bridge spans.
According to the documents, that same supervisor was Paulk’s mother-in-law, Kathie Harper. She allegedly texted the defendant after the incident to “make dam[n] sure you tell them you walked outside on balcony 3 different times to make sure no one was past gates,” and Harper instructed her to delete the message.
Both women were fired. Harper was not charged in the incident. Wright’s family reached a $8.2 million settlement with Florida Drawbridges, the company that operates the Royal Park Bridge.
