Good Samaritan Falls Off Bridge to His Death

Tragedy in Nashville, where a would-be Good Samaritan lost his life after falling off a bridge in the darkness. Mark Ferguson was traveling on I-40 with his three brothers around 2am today when they came upon a what police describe as "a car that had crashed into the retaining wall and was partially blocking the interstate." The men, who were heading back to Omaha from a military graduation in South Carolina, got out and spoke to a witness who had also apparently stopped; she told them the driver had fled. The 27-year-old Ferguson set off in search of the driver, stepping over the wall. Police suspect he thought there was land on the other side; what was there, however, was a roughly 100-foot drop into the Stones River.

WKRN reports that the Omaha man was somehow able to swim to the river's edge, and was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. Police say they found the alleged drunk driver, Nathan Albright, walking along the interstate. The 36-year-old has since been charged with DUI. Ferguson's uncle tells the Tennessean the brothers "are deeply devout Christians and would help anybody in need. That they would stop does not surprise us." He says Ferguson was married with a child. (More Good Samaritan stories.)