by news-item staff
POINT TOWNSHIP - The Coal Township man who jumped to his death from a Susquehanna River bridge was seen struggling to swim before he succumbed to the cold water, according to eyewitness reports.
The Daily-Item, of Sunbury, reported that Rick Sinko, a battalion chief for the Sunbury Fire Company and first rescuer on the scene, saw Jason Long, 35, still swimming when he arrived Thursday evening.
The boats were in the water three minutes after Sinko arrived, but by the time they reached Long, he had stopped swimming, Sinko told the city newspaper.
Attempts to contact Sinko or any other fire department chiefs who were on scene to confirm the eyewitness reports were unsuccessful.
Long was driving out of Northumberland Thursday evening when he parked the Superior Plus Energy Services heating oil truck he was operating on the southbound shoulder on the Barry King Bridge (Route 11) that connects the borough and Union County north of Shamokin Dam, scaled the concrete barrier to a walkway and jumped over a metal railing into the water. Less than an hour later, he was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. in the emergency room at Sunbury Community Hospital.
The cause of death, said Northumberland County Coroner James F. Kelley, is attributed to "fresh water drowning due to hypothermia" as a result of jumping from the bridge into the west branch of the Susquehanna River.
There will be no criminal investigation into the incident.