SAN DIEGO — Traffic finally started to move as of 8:15 p.m. after the Interstate 5 was gridlocked near the Del Mar Fairgrounds for more than eight hours following police activity with a possibly suicidal man perched on an overpass. The multi-hour traffic pile-up spanned several miles and poured across several intersecting freeways. 

The California Highway Patrol got a report shortly after 11:30 a.m. Friday that a pedestrian who appeared to be 30 to 40 years old and was carrying a cane was sitting on the edge of the Del Mar Heights Road bridge over the northbound lanes of I-5, hanging on to fencing alongside the span, according to dispatch logs posted online by the state agency.

By shortly after noon, the northbound side of the freeway was closed and a police crisis negotiator was trying to talk the man off the overpass. Traffic on the interstate, meanwhile, turned to gridlock for miles to the south.

As of 2:25 p.m., the man was making his way toward the southbound side of the interstate, prompting authorities to close that side of it, according to the CHP. About five minutes later, he returned to the eastern side of the bridge, and the Highway Patrol reopened the southbound lanes.

At 3:45 p.m., however, the man was crossing over to the other side of the overpass once again, and a short time later the CHP instituted a full closure of the freeway in the area.

The situation remained unresolved as of shortly after 4:30 p.m., with the exception of a brief reopening of one southbound lane, according to Caltrans and the Highway Patrol.

The situation remained unresolved as of 6:45 p.m., with the exception of several brief late-afternoon reopenings of one southbound lane, according to San Diego police and the CHP.