Daniel Ricciardella, LIUNA Local 79 member, was on his way home from work Friday night with his wife and children when they got caught in slow 
moving New Jersey-bound traffic on the George Washington Bridge.
Two cars ahead of him, Daniel saw a young woman exit her car with a small dog under her arm and made her way to the edge of the bridge. Thinking she was getting ready to throw the dog over the bridge, Daniel got out of the car yelling, “Don’t do it!”
When the woman began to climb the rail of the bridge, Daniel realized that she was planning to jump. “I was able to grab her arm as soon as she threw herself from the rail.” Another bystander grabbed the dog as Daniel was pulling the young woman to safety.
“She kept yelling ‘There’s no other way!’ But I told her that there is always another way. I don’t think it was her time to die.”
Daniel has been a member of LIUNA Local 79 for the last ten years.