Police have criticised motorists stuck in a traffic jam for taunting a woman on social media as she threatened to jump to her death from a bridge on Saturday.
They said the remarks on Twitter were “totally unacceptable” and called on the public to be more understanding of people in distress.
The tweets were posted when the M3 was closed at Sunbury in Surrey for more than two hours before the woman was helped to safety from the footbridge. She was later detained under the Mental Health Act.
One Twitter user, Frankie Maicourt, tweeted to Surrey police: “Tell her to get on with it. Bloody ruining everyone’s weekend. Sat in this for an hour and a half now.”
Another user, Sara Russell, wrote: “To the person causing traffic jam on the M3/A316, you selfish, selfish twat.”
She added: “Surrey police, can’t you rubber bullet the jumper on M3/A316 and get the traffic moving? Or get net ready & charge her? Ridiculous.”
Surrey police responded by tweeting the reason for the delay and asking motorists to be patient.
The chief constable of Surrey police, Lynne Owens, became personally involved in a row over the incident.
Twitter user Richards Shears complained online that he was “not impressed” by the force’s handling of the scene: “Kids animals and motorbikes on the closed section. Gotta be a better way. Not impressed regardless of circumstance,” he wrote.
Owens replied: “Understand that. If we could think of better we’d honestly take it. We know how irritating road closures are!”
Inspector Julie Hillman said: “Having members of the public taunt somebody who is clearly in a distressed state as we did earlier today is completely unacceptable.
“I hope the public understand why it was necessary for us to close the road, as doing so helped save the woman’s life.
“I appreciate that being stuck in traffic is the last thing that people want to be doing, particularly on a weekend when the weather is hot, but on this occasion it was completely necessary to ensure officers saw this woman to safety.”
Following a backlash on Twitter about her comments, Russell later deleted the remarks and tweeted: “Goodness I am so sorry for any offence. A 50min journey took so long and you don’t know what my urgency was. I apologise unreservedly.”
