- Some say Golden Gate suicide barriers would mar an icon, and people would find another way to end their lives. But families of suicides say they would save lives.
Posted on 07/21/2008 7:50:20 AM PDT by SmithL
SAN FRANCISCO – Olivia Crowther left her London flat last month to become a statistic in San Francisco.
The 23-year-old college graduate surfed suicide Web sites, bought a plane ticket for California and, at 9:24 a.m. on June 25, leapt to her death off the Golden Gate Bridge, at light pole No. 105.
Her body was retrieved from the water nine minutes later – one of the latest among at least 1,300 suicides at the majestic span since it opened in 1937.
The debate over what to do about the deaths goes back nearly as far, though the pace is quickening this week with public meetings over proposals to prevent such tragedies.
Will Bay Area residents favor costly suicide barriers on one of the world's most famous bridges? Will they want to raise the existing 4-foot rail? Hang nets? Or do nothing?
It is an emotional debate that raises questions about aesthetics vs. public safety, costs vs. benefits, preservation vs. change. For many, it's also about the value of iconic symbols vs. the value of human life – and whether engineering can save suicidal people.
"We can't leave a 4-foot rail on a 220-foot drop available to vulnerable people who are in pain and having a bad day or a bad week or a bad month," said David Hull, a San Francisco librarian whose daughter, Kathy, committed suicide off the bridge in 2003.
Hull said his 26-year-old daughter was emerging from a long depression. He rejected the idea that people thinking of killing themselves will find a way, no matter what. He believes research supports the view that many suicides are impulsive and, thus, preventable – especially at a site with the mystique and allure of the towering suspension span.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
- Some say Golden Gate suicide barriers would mar an icon, and people would find another way to end their lives. But families of suicides say they would save lives.
So much for “The Right to Choose” what we can do with our bodies.
“We can’t leave a 4-foot rail on a 220-foot drop available to vulnerable people who are in pain and having a bad day or a bad week or a bad month,” said David Hull, a San Francisco librarian.”
The testosterone just oozes from this guy’s every pore....
Well, if barriers are built for the GG Bridge, won’t folks try to jump off the Oakland Bridge instead? Or does that one already have barriers?
You know, I could swear that, years ago, I read a story about a study of suicides off of the Brooklyn Bridge. As I recollect, the study reported that most people jumped from the side with the view of Manhattan(north up the East River).
Isn’t that odd?
LOL
So Hull is all the sudden an expert after his daughters death.......okie dokie then. If ya put up a no climb screen then someone set on killing themselves brings a ladder.....
Do more for SF’s safety if ya let the city council and their idiot mayor jump off that bridge.
If someone is so determined to end her life, what good will a four foot tall barrier do? Maybe if her family was a little concerned why she was suicidal instead of passing the buck to make it a political issue of building a barrier, she would still be around and in therapy.
Soilent Green
May I suggest this, may I?
What are the chances of finding a 40 yrs old straight man working as a librarian in San Fransisco?
That seems pretty fixated for someone to fly thousands of miles from London to San Francisco to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge.
Yeah, the world needs real men like you, who sit behind an anonymous keyboard and snarkily mock someone who lost a child.
People don’t kill themselves, bridges do. Time to outlaw ‘em
Just wondering,....is it possible to actually survive the jump from that height?
The old cliche’ is that water is as hard as concrete from that height, but is it if you assumed a cannonball position of if you actually dove into the water in a perfect perpendicular and knife edge dive?
And forgive me if this is a stupid question, but could someone wise me up about the physics of such a thing. Thanks.
That is ironic. If a woman decides to kill her baby in a fit of temporary depression about her situation, we should not require her to wait even 24 hours to reconsider. But we should spare no expense to make suicide by an adult more difficult.
Here is an idea. Let’s abort all babies and in one generation there will be no more suicides (satire).
The fact that this low rail is available to all is a powerful symbol that we are responsible for ourselves and it is not the job of the state to mother us from cradle to grave.
The rail should be high enough to prevent accidental falls, and no higher.
Oops mybad.
I was just clicking through the latest posts and thought he was just some random person standing up in a meeting.
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