Life can leave you choosing between bad and worse.
That left one man in an impossible situation.
And a Florida man was left with one horrible choice in a life-or-death situation.
Florida man jumps off a bridge after a car crash
A Florida man found himself in a bad spot where he had to make a split-second decision that could have been life or death.
A 39-year-old Tallahassee father was driving in his work truck, trailing behind his family who were in a separate car, when a pile-up put his family in danger in a multi-vehicle crash.
The pileup happened on I-10 in Gadsden County, Florida at the Little River Bridge Overpass.
A 44-year-old Massachusetts man lost control of his Toyota sedan in the rainy weather and crashed.
Florida gets a lot of rain and being able to avoid hydroplaning in wet weather is an essential skill.
A white car carrying the Tallahassee father’s wife and four children could not avoid the wrecked Toyota sedan.
Her white car crashed into the back of the wrecked Toyota sedan.
The Tallahassee father pulled over his work truck after he saw that his family was involved in the accident.
Fortunately, the mother and her four children only sustained minor injuries from the accident.
The father helped his family get out of the wrecked vehicle and to a safe spot when he saw trouble barreling down on him.
He saw a semi-truck headed straight for him on the bridge that he did not think had enough time to stop.
That left him with a split-second decision to make before the semi slammed into his wife’s wrecked car.
“(The) Dad who originally pulled over realized he was about to be struck by the semi-tractor/ trailer, jumped over the bridge rail and fell 40 plus feet to the ground,” the Florida Highway Patrol wrote in a crash report.
Faced with the bad choices of trying to avoid a semi or jumping off a bridge, he chose what he thought was the best option.
Florida Highway Patrol praises father for making the tough choice
The father reportedly broke both of his legs during his 40-foot plus fall after he jumped.
Florida Highway Patrol Captain Jason King told ABC 27 that he thought the dad made the right call in the situation.
“I would definitely say the best decision in the moment,” King said. “This kind of lends us a safety message. But again like I spoke earlier, we’re going to make decisions to protect our family. But we try to encourage everyone to stay in their vehicles until the dust settles, as they say, to allow the crashes to kind of subside.”
Three more vehicles joined the pileup right after the father jumped off the bridge.
The eastbound lanes of I-10 were shut down for six hours while authorities attended to the multi-vehicle pileup.
Six people suffered minor injuries from the crash.
Tallahassee firefighters used heavy rescue equipment to retrieve the injured father from the embankment where he landed.
Jumping off a bridge ended up being a better choice than getting hit by a semi.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this story.