UPDATED: Another Death Off Santa Margarita Parkway Bridge

By Martin Henderson, originally posted Friday, 8:34 p.m. Updated by Adam Townsend with victim identification 8 a.m. Saturday.

The Santa Margarita Parkway Bridge claimed another life on Friday as a man jumped to his death in front of deputies. 

According to Lt. Tim Rainwater of the Orange County Sheriff's Department, a call from an informant was made at 6:27 p.m. to report a male standing on the bridge.  

Deputies arrived on the scene quickly and made contact with the individual. 

"He made it aware to the deputies that he didn't want them to make contact," Rainwater said. "They stepped back and continued to try to talk to him. Within a few minutes, he jumped off the bridge."

The Orange County Coroner Saturday identified the man as Jeffrey Philip Jones, 34, of Mission Viejo.

The Orange County Fire Authority responded after Jones leapt from the east side of the bridge. He died at the scene.

"My thoughts and prayers go to that person and his family and friends, it's very sad," said Tony Beall, mayor of Rancho Santa Margarita. "My thoughts are also with the deputies that tried to save that person's life and had to witness this tragic event. The deputies put their lives at risk for all of us, and an event like this is traumatic for everyone involved."

Jones is the eighth person to die after falling from the bridge, which rises 63 feet above O'Neill Regional Park and spans Trabuco Creek. Two of the deaths were accidents.

Prior to Friday, the most recent death took place last year when a Lake Forest woman was discovered on the east side of the bridge, about five days after committing suicide; the coroner pegged her death as Sept. 4, 2012. It had been 25 months since the previous death at that location.

Only one person has ever survived a fall from the structure, which is essentially two bridges for separate directions of travel. Stephen Beckman did a high jump over the top railing in 2011 and lived, but went to the higher Oso Parkway Bridge a year later and jumped off that. He survived that, too, but was brain dead; his body was harvested of its organs for several local residents.

Despite the deaths, the deputies who patrol Rancho Santa Margarita have had good success in such tense situations, and four times in 2012 saved lives in peril, including deputy Tim Africano holding onto a boy on the outside of the fencing until help arrived on the Banderas Bridge, and deputy Felipe Martinez tackling a man who was on the ledge of the Antonio Parkway Bridge at  Tijeras Creek.