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LAS VEGAS (AP) — A woman's threat to jump closed the Hoover Dam bypass bridge for nearly five hours Tuesday, creating a miles-long backup on a key route between Las Vegas and Phoenix.
A Nevada Highway Patrol trooper was seriously injured directing turn-around traffic before the woman surrendered to crisis counselors a little before 11 a.m., officials said.
The woman's identity wasn't made public. She was getting a 72-hour mental health evaluation, Las Vegas police Officer Laura Meltzer said.
The trooper was hospitalized with head injuries after he was struck by a mid-sized tour bus that was backing up to turn around on the winding road to Hoover Dam from U.S. 93 in Nevada, Trooper Jason Buratczuk said.
The injured trooper's name wasn't immediately made public. His highway patrol motorcycle was damaged.
The tour bus driver was questioned, but it wasn't immediately clear if any citations were issued, Buratczuk said.
The winding road to the dam where the injury occurred formerly carried U.S. Highway 93 traffic across the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona.
After the bridge opened in 2010, the road to the dam and its visitor center became Nevada State Highway 172. The former U.S. 93 route to the dam from the Arizona side was abandoned.
With no alternate route on the 75-mile drive from Kingman, Arizona, to the Nevada state line, northbound motorists met a traffic jam about 4 miles southeast of the dam, said Brad Larsen, owner of Rosie's Den diner and fuel stop. His business, in White Hills, Arizona, is about 28 miles south of the dam.
"My place was packed," Larsen told The Associated Press. "The people waited for an hour, then they remembered Rosie's for breakfast."
The closure of the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge road and pedestrian walkway began after the woman was seen on the bridge about 6 a.m., police and the highway patrol said. Officials quickly issued an advisory for motorists to use alternate routes.
Suicide prevention was discussed when the bridge was being built, and a sidewalk was added to allay fears that sightseers would create a traffic hazard stopping vehicles on the bridge. A five-foot railing was added, but the bridge opened without hotline signs or telephones.
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