Man Creates Traffic Mess In Tacoma

Man Creates Traffic Mess In Tacoma

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Story Published: Oct 6, 2005 at 2:07 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 2:05 AM PDT

By KOMO Staff

TACOMA - Traffic was very slowly getting back to normal Thursday evening around the Tacoma Dome after police and firefighters rescued a man who had crawled up onto a freeway sign.

The man unfurled a banner just after 3 p.m., then sat up there some 30 feet above the southbound lanes in a steady rain.

The State Patrol closed most of the southbound lanes and a few northbound lanes while they brought in a ladder truck from Tacoma Fire to try and bring the man down.

Video from Air 4 showed Washington State Patrol Sergeant Johnny Alexander then climbed up the ladder and spoke with the man for about 10 minutes before talking the man into coming down.

The man was then placed into custody and the freeway was reopened just after 4 p.m.

Sgt. Alexander says this is the same man who climbed up on a freeway sign in the same area on Oct. 4, 2004. Alexander was the one who talked him down in that incident as well.

At the height of the backup, traffic stretched from the Tacoma Dome north to Southcenter Mall in Tukwila -- nearly 20 miles away.

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