‘This could have ended very badly’: UTA honors employees who saved man

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SALT LAKE CITY — Chris Charlesworth was traveling on North Temple by Salt Lake City’s Fairpark neighborhood when an unusual call came across the Utah Transit Authority radio communication system.

Ediri Oyake was operating a UTA TRAX train a little way up the line just before 7 a.m. on April 29 and spotted someone lying on the ledge of the Triad Center parking garage behind the BYU Salt Lake Center. The person’s legs were dangling above the street and the situation didn’t look safe, at all. Charlesworth, a TRAX supervisor, knew Oyake well enough to know that if he thought something was wrong, it probably was.

So he quickly raced over to see what was happening. As he drove up the North Temple Bridge, he could see the man sitting at the top of the structure. His shoes had already fallen and it appeared he was preparing to jump off the large three-story structure.

“I’m like, ‘That doesn’t look pretty good,’” Charlesworth told KSL.com, recalling the harrowing moments. “I just jumped out and left the truck and started to talk to him, see what’s going on.”

He and a couple there at the time talked with the man, trying to back him away from the ledge. As the other couple continued to engage with the man for a minute or two longer, Charlesworth ran up to the top of the structure and tried to intervene from the top, while also calling for police backup.

The man held a cigarette in one hand and something in his other hand, commanding Charlesworth to back up as he began a conversation with the man. Charlesworth asked the individual about his favorite music, food and perhaps what he’d do later in the day if he came down.

“(It was) those types of questions, to be able to build that relationship and be able to let him know I see him and I recognize that he’s a human, and he’s more valuable than what he’s thinking,” he said. “He was frustrated, there was some sadness.”

It took about five minutes but the man eventually backed away before police and firefighters arrived. He threatened another jump but first responders were able to secure the man and provide the help he needed at the moment.

UTA officials recognized Oyake and Charlesworth for their swift actions last month during the agency’s board of trustees meeting on Wednesday.

“If it weren’t for both of their actions, I think this could have ended very badly,” said Tony Berger, TRAX operations supervisor at Utah Transit Authority.

What happened on April 29 is unfortunately a situation that UTA encounters on a fairly regular basis, which is it has deployed ways to intervene. UTA Board of Trustees Chairman Carlton Christensen told a joint KSL-Deseret News editorial board earlier this month that another employee also recently prevented a suicide attempt before the teenage individual was able to be reconnected with their parents.

The agency began investing more in night cameras and other technologies so that operators are aware when someone is on the railway, as one of the efforts to prevent deaths.

“It’s hard on those families, obviously, and it’s also hard on our engineers,” Christensen said.

In this case, it was all about awareness. While Oyake wasn’t able to attend the meeting, Berger commended the operator for his ability to notice the situation. He explained that with the roadway, railroad switch and sidewalks, there’s a lot happening in the area to pay attention to.

It’s easy to miss what’s happening around any of the buildings, much less, the top of a parking structure.

“There’s a lot going on that Ediri should be watching for, so to also do that safely, as well as notice someone laying on top of this parking garage, was exceptional,” Berger said.

UTA also normally wouldn’t handle a case like this, as its jurisdiction is only the property it owns; however, Charlesworth said it was clearly a dire situation.

He hopes nobody ever finds themselves in the spot he found himself in on April 29 but if they do that they don’t hesitate to help out.

“Don’t be afraid to take that risk to talk to them because you don’t know what they need. They may just need you to say ‘hello’ and to recognize that they’re a person, they’re human,” he said. “We sometimes don’t take the right action because we’re afraid to say the wrong thing or cross the line and interfere with someone but that could be the difference.”

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