Man who fell 150 feet from Ambassador Bridge into Detroit River speaks out about ‘fluke’ incident

DETROIT – The man who fell from the Ambassador Bridge and lived to talk about it is on a mission to thank the people who rushed to his aid.

Spencer Baker is the man many people have wanted to hear from since his 150-foot plunge into the Detroit River.

The incident occurred Wednesday (July 12) while Baker was working on the Detroit-Windsor bridge.

Imagine how scary this must have been for the ironworker to fall that far down into the Detroit River.

“I mean, there’s nothing I could ever do to repay the people who saved my life, but I just want to let him know that I appreciate it,” said Baker.

Since he was rescued after falling 150 feet, Baker has been trying to thank the man who saved his life.

“I have the man’s phone numbers, the guy that was operating the boat to come out and rescued me,” Baker said. “I’ve tried to call twice, but I haven’t got an answer yet, but I’m still going to keep trying and like because I really got a few words I’d like to say to him, just thank him.”

Baker also owes a lot of gratitude to the people who saw him fall in the first place and got help from there.

“If those people weren’t there, I’d probably never get to see my 4-month-old daughter again or my beautiful fiancee,” Baker said. “I’m just so thankful and fortunate for those people that were there that helped me because it really saved my life.”

The big question on everyone’s mind was what went wrong and how he landed in the water.

“We’re doing a certain task, which is a pretty simple task, but something a fluke happened, and essentially I was pulled over the guardrail from the road over the guard rail into the water.”

Baker doesn’t remember much. But at least he wasn’t hurt as badly as you’d expect.

After being pulled from the water, he discovered his most noticeable injury.

“I remember laying on the boat looking at my arm,” Baker said. “You can see it’s all bruised up. They told me that I’m lucky to be alive.”

It will take some time for Baker to heal, but once again, it’s nothing short of a miracle that he’s still alive.

Westcott security cameras captured the moment when the man fell, and when witnesses ran for help. You can see some of that footage in the video player below.