OXNARD : Suicide Threat Closes Highway

Oxnard police closed a portion of the Pacific Coast Highway during the height of rush-hour traffic Friday afternoon after an Oxnard woman threatened to jump from an overpass onto the highway, police said.

Officers managed to coax the 21-year-old woman down from the bridge after talking to her for about an hour, Sgt. John Crombach said. Police closed about 1 1/2 miles of the highway--from Statham Boulevard to Pleasant Valley Road--from about 4:15 p.m. to about 5:15 p.m., Crombach said.

That portion of the Pacific Coast Highway is heavily traveled on Friday afternoons by people leaving Point Mugu for the weekend, Crombach said. Police said the woman was found sitting on the concrete railing outside the chain-link fence girding the overpass. The two officers at the scene established a rapport with the woman, who told them she was upset over personal problems.

The woman would not immediately allow firefighters to rescue her with a fire truck ladder, Crombach said. But after one of the police officers inched his way out to where she sat, she grabbed hold of him. The officer held her until the Fire Department could raise its ladder to the bridge, Crombach said.

Officers took the woman to a hospital for evaluation, Crombach said.