  A 29 year old man who escaped from the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital leaped to his death off the Burlington Skyway Bridge. Upon further investigation the 29 year old patient was under careful care of nurses who were to check on him every 15 minutes. He apparently ran off between checks and it was at the 10:45am check when he was noticed missing. The staff had noticed that he must have changed out of his pajamas into street clothes before fleeing. Hospital staff later discovered a suicide note in the man's room. A search was conducted by hospital staff when they could not find him. At about 11:30am the hospital contacted police. At the same time the police received reports of a man that just jumped off the Skyway Bridge. The man jumped off the bridge around 11:30am and his plunge was seen by work crews that were working on the pillars for the new Skyway twin. The workmen stated they saw the man walk up the old Skyway Bridge from Hamilton, then they called to him but he did not respond. The police divers and marine rescue unit recovered the body from the canal. Dr. Marcel Lemieux said in 1983 there were 383 incidents (1.04 incidents per day) in which a patient would flee the institition. There were 143 persons involved in the 383 incidents he continued to say, noting it was not uncommon for the same person to excape several times.  Another construction fatality happened at the Skyway Bridge when a steel worker "Tony Decker" aged 26 of Hamilton was blown off the bridge into the canal. The accident happened about 10:45 am on July 2, '87. Mr. Decker was working on the center span of the old Skyway Bridge when a gust of wind blew him off causing him to fall 120 feet into the canal. Police reported that Mr. Decker was carrying a piece of sheet metal when a gust of wind came along and tossed him off the catwalk . According to a fellow worker who saw the man fall, as told to reporters, the man was wearing his safety belt but it was not attached to the bridge. Authorities had used dragging units from the Canadian Coast Gaurd, the Hamilton - Wentworth Police Marine Unit, the beach rescue unit, and the town of Oakville Water Air Rescue Force. Divers were also brought in by the Peel Police. Once Mr. Decker hit the water apparently he resurfaced and tried to swim in the choppy water only to be pulled down again. Another witness "Bob Jerosky" was preparing to fish when he saw something falling from the bridge.Then there was a big splash and a couple of seconds later he heard all these screams coming from the bridge yelling "HELP! HELP!" Mr. Jerosky started to look into the canal and noticed a small object in the middle of the canal, then the object turned and he saw it was the face of the steel worker. Mr. Decker was wearing heavy work clothes and a heavy tool belt when he hit the water. Apparently he did not tie down his safety belt because he was moving from one spot to another on the bridge.
"We will work on more reports over time" After reviewing some of the reports of strange things that happened in this area and the number of deaths, gave us cause to conduct a paranormal investigation to the Skyway bridge and the Burlington Canal. If you are not a believer into the paranormal, this is fine and we hope that you enjoyed the history of the Burlington Skyway Bridge and Canal. To follow are our findings of things that deal with the paranormal in our opinion.  At the Canal there is a landmark sign that explains a bit about the beginning's of how the canal came about.   On April 18th,2003 was the start of our first investigation at the Burlington Canal. We took 304 photos of the canal and pier, we will show only the best shots we got on this night....The weather was clear and there were some folks smelting on the lake side of the pier.... In this photo you can see an orb just to the left above the pier.  After a while I got this shot of some ecto mist by the boat ramp. Notice the mist seems to go into a swirl. There seemed to be a presence near me at the time this photo was taken....  In this photo you can see what appears as an image of a man running towards me in ecto form. Skyway Bridge Page 2 Skyway Bridge Page 3 Skyway Bridge Page 4 Skyway Bridge Page 5 Skyway Bridge Page 6 Skyway Bridge Page 7     |