LEHI — A 25-year-old Clearfield man drowned in the Jordan River west of Lehi on Sunday.
Search and rescue teams from the Utah and Salt Lake county sheriff's departments scoured the river late Sunday and found him about 8:40 p.m.
Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon said the man, a teenage boy and one or two other people went to an old iron bridge beside 9600 North at the Jordan River Parkway about 5:30 p.m. The 25-year-old man and the teenager both jumped off the bridge and into the water, which Cannon said was perhaps 40 degrees.
The teenager managed to swim to shore and later told Cannon he cramped up and was barely able to swim out of the river safely. The 25-year-old, however, did not make it out of the water.
"It's a place where we commonly find people jumping off the bridge into the river, more during the warmer weather. But on a day like today, they get confused between warm weather and cold water, and the water is still incredibly cold," Cannon said.
"In water that cold, it's not going to take very long at all, if that long, for a person to get to the point where they can no longer function effectively."
About 100 people were involved in the search. The body was found by a diver with the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Search and Rescue Team.
The victim's name was not released pending notification of family members. Some members of his family were at the scene of the rescue operation Sunday night but declined to talk to the media.
Rob Craig, who lives nearby, said his 19-year-old son has jumped off the bridge before, just as many other people have. But he said his son typically waits until the weather, and the water, is much warmer.
"If you're bike-riding or walking down the trail it's very common to see kids down here fishing, jumping off the bridge — if the water's high enough," said Craig, who said he has never heard of any other life-threatening situations involving the old bridge.
The bridge on Sunday was about 20 feet above the river, which is fairly deep right now. Craig said sometimes people jump off the top of the bridge, another 25 to 30 feet higher, but Cannon said it was not known whether that was the case with the man who drowned.
"It's very unsafe and we usually kick kids out of there" whenever deputies find people jumping off the bridge, Cannon said.
However, he added, he does not believe there are any signs posted saying it is illegal to jump off the bridge. The bridge is currently used to connect the Jordan River Parkway trail on either side of the river.
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