A man jumped to his death from a Spaghetti Junction overpass early Thursday afternoon, shutting down all northbound lanes of I-85 for more than an hour.
This was the second such fatal incident at Spaghetti Junction in recent weeks as another man committed suicide by jumping off of an overpass 10 days ago.
All lanes were cleared on I-85 and I-285 by mid-afternoon Thursday.
Officers responded to the overpass shortly before 1 p.m. and discovered the driver of a Ford Taurus had stopped his car along Spaghetti Junction and jumped off an overpass, said DeKalb police spokeswoman Mekka Parish.
The man landed in the I-85 northbound lane and died from his injuries. The medical examiner has not yet identified the man, Parish said.
Natalie Dale, a spokeswoman for GDOT, said she believes officals have considered erecting barriers to prevent jumping from the overpasses but thinks costs might have been prohibitive.
“I think it’s something we have looked at before, but it doesn’t happen all that often and the cost would be substantial,” Dale said.
Dale did not immediately know the cost to GDOT and local governments when I-85 has to be shut down for accident investigation and clean-up.
Staff writer Andria Simmons contributed to this article.
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