Suicide barrier for Golden Gate?

[truthpusher]

Suicide barrier for Golden Gate?

The Golden Gate Bridge is shown from Fort Point in San Francisco, California.

Friday, February 25, 2005 Posted: 10:33 AM EST (1533 GMT)

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Golden Gate Bridge officials Thursday moved closer to building a barrier to prevent people from jumping off the famous suspension bridge, where about 1,300 people have killed themselves since the landmark opened in 1937.

Officials voted to develop a plan and explore funding for the suicide barrier after hearing emotional testimony from friends and family of people who jumped off the iconic bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County.

~snip~

"I don't want one more family member to go through this pain," said Terry Oxford of San Jose, whose 26-year-old daughter, Jennifer, jumped to her death last week. "She chose this bridge because it was accessible."

"This is the place where the most preventable suicides occur," said Eve Meyer, executive director of San Francisco Suicide Prevention. "These are the most impulsive, least planned and least strategized suicides."

complete story: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/25/golden.gate.ap/index.html

[GetTheRightVote]

1. If I were to jumped from a bridge that would be the one

:kick:

[Jamison]

2. Good plan for when

people in San Fran get their first mortgage payment. lol

[Jamastiene]

3. Why?

Enlighten me. I'm dreaming of moving to San Fran one day. It is way high up compared to others. The bridges around here don't have dimensions posted any where so I don't have a gauge...

[Erika]

4. Suicide is an option

I notices the majority said gates and rails shold not be applied.

[Minstrel Boy]

5. A bridge in Toronto was second only to the Golden Gate for suicides,

before installing a barrier, which is actually a giant piece of art, called the Luminous Veil:



It saves lives, and enhances the bridge.

[saigon68]

6. They'll just Buy a gun and Blow their brains OUT

Oh I forgot you can't have a gun in Cali.

Oh well I guess you'll have to deliberately crash your car into a tree at high speed.

[truthpusher]

7. And that's a lot messier not to mention...

...psychological damaging for the people who find them.

[LifeDuringWartime]

9. cant have guns in california?

since when?

[loritooker]

8. I can understand the grieving families blaming the bridge for their

loved ones suicides. The article cites a study done in 1974 that showed that 1. a certain amount of bridge suicides (maybe all suicides) are committed on impulse and 2. the people who were stopped only had a 7% chance of attempting suicide by some other means. However, the manner in which they were "stopped" was by someone talking them out of it. A barrier on the bridge might not be as affective a means of stopping an ultimate suicide as human contact, human concern. If the bridge, for sake of argument, did not even exist, would these suicidal people find some other means to, impulsively or not, commit suicide? If so, isn't the families' arguments that removing the means to suicide impossible to achieve? Wouldn't guns, pills, alcohol, to name just a few means of suicide, need to be removed as well?

I hope that the commission studying this looks at suicide statistics in areas where bridge barriers have been installed. If for example, before a bridge barrier was built an average of 1,000 people per year jumped, and after the barricade, an average of 1,000 people less per year committed suicide in general, that might be a strong argument for building the barricade. I would also be interested to know if there's a subgroup of people who ONLY wish to die by jumping off bridges as opposed to other means. My initial reaction to this issue was that if they couldn't use the bridge, they'd simply turn to other means. I'd like to know if that is true. I hope this issue does not become politicized...

An acquaintance of mine had a good friend who just jumped off the GG bridge last week.

[Duer 157099]

11. I can personally attest to the fact that

someone intent on suicide will ultimately succeed.

My friend was thwarted from a bridge jump, only to later succeed using another method.

I remain ambivalent as to which method was preferable.

[DemoTex]

10. "A Veil of Deterrence for a Bridge With a Dark Side"

The structure became a literary landmark as well in 1987 when Michael Ondaatje described the construction of the double-decker bridge in exquisite poetic detail in his novel "In the Skin of a Lion," marking it as the epitome of this city's latent but limitless possibilities in the collective imagination of Torontonians. But the steel-arched bridge, spanning the Don River and Don Valley Parkway with a 12-story drop, also has a dark side, one Mr. Ondaatje suggested in his novel by describing how a gust of wind blew a nun off the bridge before she was scooped up in midair by a construction worker suspended on a rope.

Reality has been less kind. More than 400 people have jumped from the bridge to their deaths, including 100 over the last decade, lending the viaduct the morbid nickname of "suicide magnet." Only the Golden Gate Bridge has been the site of more suicides in North America, according to mental health advocates here. (Snip ..)

Mr. McCamus and Mr. Birney reinforced their campaign with several academic studies showing that similar fences reduced incidents of bridge suicides in other cities. One such study of the Duke Ellington Bridge in Washington, D.C., showed that the building of a barrier there in 1986 did not cause a corresponding increase in suicides at the nearby Taft Bridge, suggesting that certain sites have a special draw for potential suicide jumpers. Given a barrier, those considering suicide are forced to pause, giving them an opportunity to rethink their predicament and seek help. (More ..)

http://notes.edc.org/HHD/CSN/ncspres.nsf/0/3d8fc6565d619ea385256cd3005be201?OpenDocument

The Golden Gate Bridge has been open for almost 68 years. With an average of 20 suicide jumps a year the total must be up near 1400. The Duke Ellington Bridge Washington, DC. and the Don River Bridge in Toronto have suicide barriers (as does the Empire State Building). By most accounts they seem to work.

[Mz Pip]

12. We have lots of bridges here.

I don't know if a barrier would really make that much difference to someone who was intent on killing themselves.

I knew a woman years ago who jumped off the GG Bridge. She had a long history of depression and was in and out of the hospital. She probably would have just picked another venue - like the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge or the Carquinez Bridge - to make her final flight.

I'd rather see the money spent on treatment programs and intervention programs for mental illness than a barrier. We have been dealing with a family member for years and years who has serious mental problems and it is nearly impossible to get help. I would be more upset about that issue than the lack of a barrier if she did decide to commit suicide.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[Baclava]

13. Leave the bridge alone...

It's not like they're gonna hurt anyone below in the water when they jump. If they have the guts to climb over that railing - then they will find easier ways too...

[Gyre]

14. Lets just cover anything over 10' off the ground

w/ chickenwire. Sheesh, morans.

Gyre