Some others don't.
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/livewire/000233.phpAll along the Brooklyn Bridge’s walkway, groups of people huddle against the sides and grimace into cameras, trying to capture a piece of this view. Joggers rush by in all their spandex glory, headphones firmly attached to their heads. Others amble across the bridge, looking calm and serene, even as cars and trucks whizzing underneath shake the wooden slats beneath their feet.
But some people don’t come to the bridge for the view or to exercise, and it’s highly doubtful they feel calm. The New York Police Department receives about 700 calls each year for people attempting suicide by jumping off structures, and by far the Brooklyn Bridge lures the most jumpers, said Gary Gorman, a retired police officer who worked with the NYPD Emergency Service Unit. He also leads tour groups of the Brooklyn Bridge and explains how police officers talk down jumpers.
... Part of the appeal may lie in the bridge’s accessibility. The pedestrian walkway is in the middle of the bridge. But, perpendicularly attached to the walkway’s railings and running to the outer edge of the bridge are rows of metal beams about 5 inches in width, about 12 feet long---wide enough for a foot, and not so long that a desperate person couldn’t cross it in minutes.
... The bridge itself may be to blame for the lack of action. Said Gorman: “There’s ways of making the bridge secure, but it would probably take away from the beauty.”
Ran across that as I was looking for reports on the debate surrounding "suicide-proofing" the aqueduct in downtown Toronto. Not having much luck.
Here we are. It's a "viaduct".
http://www.schizophrenia.on.ca/bridge.htmlThe Bloor Street Viaduct - A Suicide Magnet
In June 1997, then President of East York Chapter Al Birney made a motion at our Annual General Meeting to take action against bridge suicides, citing the rising deaths at Toronto's Bloor St. Viaduct. Members of local chapters had lost three sons and one daughter at the bridge. The motion was unanimously adopted by chapter presidents, and Birney was invited to form the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario Bridge Committee. For three years, the Bridge Committee, led by Birney as Chairman and Michael McCamus as Spokesperson, has held meetings with 58 City Councillors and given numerous presentations at City Hall and in the community to advocate a suicide prevention fence. On average, one person jumps from the bridge every 22 days.
Research at similar "suicide magnets," including the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, Golden Gate Bridge, and Washington's Duke Ellington Bridge, demonstrates that deterrent barriers prevent impulsive jumps, save lives, and protect bystanders travelling underneath the monuments. ...
On January 16, 2001, a 24-year-old University of Toronto student walked to Bloor Street's Prince Edward Viaduct, and leapt to his death. Since 1919, the landmark bridge has attracted over 400 suicides, a world record second only to Golden Gate Bridge.
On January 18, the Bloor Viaduct Project Steering Committee's chair Ellis Kirkland announced a $3.5 million sponsorship plan to complete the long-delayed $6 million Luminous Veil, an award- winning barrier design.
There are brief descriptions there of testimony from people who had lost family members, and the people who deal with the aftermath. Worth reading, for anyone who actually gives a damn.
Dr. Mark Quigg, an emergency room doctor who has treated hundreds of suicidal patients at Wellesley Hospital, said, "For most, suicide is an impulsive act, and if stopped, many individuals will go on to receive treatment."
... even about their tax dollars:
Dr. Sylvia Geist, former president of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada, reminded councillors that every suicide results in $800,000 of costs for ambulance, health care, investigations, autopsies, funerals and lost wages.
I hadn't followed closely enough to know what the ultimate outcome was. Here it is:
http://imprint.uwaterloo.ca/issues/060101/4Human/human01.shtml
Well ... no, that was 2001, and it was still being wrangled over, so those are artists' representations, I guess. Having a hard time finding confirmation of the present status. This one says it's been built, in 2003
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&e=3&u=/usatoday/20050131/ts_usatoday/suicidestarnishthegoldengateThat article is specifically about the Golden Gate Bridge, and raises the question of whether publicity surrounding suicides leads to more suicides. Interestingly, I just read a report today about the observed rise in suicides following the (widely reported and commented on) suicides of celebrities.
Of course, there's always the old "oh, they'll just find some other way of killing themselves" chestnut.
http://www.preventdisease.com/news/articles/Toronto_Hopes_Bridge_Barrier_Will_Curb_Suicides.shtmlA recent letter to the editor of the Toronto Star newspaper suggested the barrier would be effective only if similar restrictions were erected on every other major bridge in the city.
But supporters of the barrier say the viaduct is more than just another bridge, and its prominent location and grim history has given it a perverse kind of cachet.
... "These places, these magnets tend to attract people who are looking for kind of a romanticized way to kill themselves," said Michael McCamus, a former journalism student who has been Birney's right-hand man in the campaign.
... They dusted off a 20-year-old study by former University of California at Berkeley psychologist Richard H. Seiden that found that of 515 people restrained from jumping off the Golden Gate between 1937 and 1971, 94 percent were still alive a median of 25 years later. Seiden also found that the Golden Gate drew more than five times as many suicides as the nearby Oakland Bay Bridge, which is of similar height and draws from the same population base.
So it's just one of those things that some people care about and some people don't -- whether other people who are in need of assistance kill themselves without getting it, and whether they will be provided with easy access to places that function as focal points for their desperation. Some people want to try to deter such people from impulsive acts of self-destruction; of course, they are generally the people who want to find ways of identifying and assisting the people in need of such assistance who might otherwise act on those impulses.
Suicide, i.e. attempting suicide, has not been illegal in Canada for quite a long time, by the way.
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