(Dennis Clark)
A bridge painter fiddling with his safety harness fell from the middle of the Throgs Neck Bridge yesterday morning — and co-workers said they saw him alive in the frigid water before the current swept him away.
“He was alive when he hit the water. He was treading water. We waved to him, and he waved back to us,” a colleague said.
Cops, firefighters and the Coast Guard were searching under the bridge last night for John Massas, 35, a Bronx resident and married father of three. He was presumed dead.
Massas was working on a platform beneath the roadbed of the bridge, which at its greatest height is 142 feet above the Long Island Sound.
He was either changing or adjusting his harness when he fell, said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
A safety boat — supposed to be patrolling the area in case of a fall — was not in place, workers said.
The Coast Guard and police arrived before the safety boat, they said.
Massas worked for El Sol Contracting and Construction of Maspeth, Queens. The company did not return calls yesterday.
Massas’ brother, who would not give his name, said his sibling was a thorough professional.
“When they called him for the Throgs Neck job, it was because he was the best there is,” he said.
The victim’s mother-in-law, Carmen Gonzales, said, “He loved his job.
“He was a very good husband, a good father. He was saving money for their children’s college. He didn’t want his children to be like him, painting.”