Retired reporter dies after Milwaukee drawbridge opens while he’s crossing

A Milwaukee bridge operator was placed on leave Tuesday pending an investigation after he opened a drawbridge while a man was walking across, sending him falling to his death.

Richard Charles Dujardin, a 77-year-old former religion reporter for the Providence Journal in Rhode Island, died Monday when he got trapped crossing the Kilbourn Avenue Bridge over the Milwaukee River, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Dujardin’s wife, Rose-Marie, had already made it across, but he was taking his time when the drawbridge started to rise.

Richard Dujardin

“The lights, bells, and arms came down at each end of the bridge, however Richard was hard of hearing and it is thought that he didn’t notice them,” the medical examiner wrote in a report.

Dujardin held onto a side railing for a minute or two as the bridge approached a 90 degree angle, but lost his grip and fell 71 feet onto the concrete street below.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Dujardin, a Fordham University graduate, became the Journal’s religion reporter in 1977 after serving three years in the U.S. Naval Reserve. In 2015, he was awarded the Religion News Association’s lifetime achievement award.

Police officers close off access to the Kilbourn Avenue Bridge. (Hannah Kirby/)

He and Rose-Marie had six children.

“Richard was at St. Peter’s Square in 1978 as John Paul II became Pope, and back again in both 2005 and 2013 to cover the naming of Benedict XVI and then Pope Francis,” Journal columnist Mark Patinkin wrote in an obituary.

“But he’d tell you it was just as meaningful to him to cover local religious news, including Rhode Island’s Muslim community after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, and the poignant closing of the state’s Episcopal cathedral in 2012 because of declining membership.”