Grim portrait of Golden Gate Bridge suicides: 74% of jumps have been witnessed

Not good for anyone involved but especially tough for the families and friends left behind to deal with it.

I was in the Headlands one evening a few years ago shooting photos of the bridge at dusk. It was one of those rare, perfectly calm evenings leading into a warm spell when you could actually hear the engine of a ship entering the bay from about half a mile away up on the hillside. It got dark and I started to put my camera away when I noticed red flashing lights on the bridge headed south from Marin approaching mid-span. I decided to set up my camera again to take advantage of the red lights. About 25 seconds later I heard a 'thud' in the distance -- it was definitely the sound of something hitting the water. A few seconds later, a flare dropped from the bridge and landed on the water where it floated into the bay with the incoming tide. A few minutes later the lights of two Coast Guard boats appeared from behind the North Tower and headed towards the flare. The Coast Guard boats started launching overhead flares to light up the area while they searched. After several minutes the two boats converged on a spot and after a few more minutes they sped back to the Marin side. Despite being maybe 20 minutes from start to finish and not really seeing it up close, it was pretty surreal and left me humbled. On my walk back to the car I thought if I ever published/sold those photos I'd donate all proceeds to a suicide prevention organization. But the slides are still sitting in the box.

OK, now you've stretched a story on a survey into two stories over two days. Now how long are you going to continue to drag this story out. Your efforts to stir the emotions and gain support in favor of a barrier are transparent, but more importantly, you are allowing your emotions and beliefs to shape your "news" coverage.

You may well believe that a barrier is needed, but this survey is worth ONE story on ONE day. Your beliefs should be reflected on your Editorial pages, not in the way you report information. Shaping your "news" in this fashion clearly outlines your lack of journalistic integrity.

Let's get a head on collision barrier in place first before we waste money on a feel good bridge- defacing suicide barrier.

Every driver crossing the bridge and paying an outrageous and possibly illegal toll--it's been paid off for a long time--is in danger of dying in a head on.

A few people that chose to end their lives here or elsewhere are more important than these millions of drivers?

No, build a suicide barrier and spend millions to have them just shimmy out over the net on one of the support poles, then jump.

That way we can feel good about trying to stop these jumpers........the see that the $ was a waste when it should have went to building a barrier to stop head on collisions.

I do feel sorry for the families who have suffered from someone who has jumped, yet I feel more remorse and obliged to protect drivers who are commuting home with no intentions to jump.

Where has this society gone that we are willing to build a ill desigend barrier to impede a few deaths, when that money could go to protect many more?

and the railing was built for what........pedestrians too???

Is the IJ actually suggesting the taxpayers should erect a suicide barrier in order to prevent "emotional trauma" to witnesses? What a bunch of pathetic losers we've turned in to. It amazes me to think of the real hardships and tragedies my grandparents lived through so my generation could live in such swaddled and self-aborbed bliss.

Wow, I didn't realize how self centered these suicidal folks were. What if they landed on a fisherman?

The fact is these desperate people will find another method to take their own lives. The net is a waste of money that could be used elsewhere.

Journalistic integrity? In the I.J.? Who you kiddin'? This reads like a PR piece for the bridge barrier supporters, much like ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN do for Obama in the state run media. This is an enormous waste of money that will only drive people who want to end it all to another location or method of suicide.

Kathy said it all. A barrier won't solve anything.

while this is a sad story I think the barrier is a waste of money. I have seen people die in car accidents, on trauma tables, jumping from bridges etc. Death is a part of life, what people seem to not remember is that the people jumping have made a choice and it is theirs to make. Poor you for seeing it, get over it I guess is what I am saying.
28 -38 deaths in a year are not very many...how many died in drunken driving accidents in Ca alone last year?

Go out in style....a swan dive in a tuxedo is very Marin and classy as well.

Bridge District stats reported 2/08:
since 1971 there have been....
Fact:
36 fatalities from head-ons and
1.4 BILLION Total vehicle crossings
Fact:
The Bridge is a suicide magnet, those who are stopped rarely kill themselves another way later.

How is 1 death a year more important than 20-40 deaths of the ill and distraught among us?

As someone said in the past: "If golden retrievers were jumping, there would be a public outcry for a barrier."

Where are the comments in favor of suicide prevention?

Don't put up a rail put up a diving board.

I would like to know if Northern California has a higher rate of suicide compared to an area that does not have such a highly publicised site.

In other words, can it be proved that the existence of the bridge causes suicides? Or would a similar percentage of people in, say, Chicago, commit suicide by some other means?

Fact: Not one marine biologist has ever jumped from the Golden Gate.

answer wrote:

Don't put up a rail put up a diving board.

LOL. Superb idea!

The creator of Victoria Secret jumped to his demise. However the article doesn't create any desire for me to spend a dollar supporting such a barrier/net. What a waste of $.

"...can it be proved that the existence of the bridge causes suicides?"

Well sure, Margot, the proof? That would be the 1300 bodies under the bridge.

There is a documentary on suicides off the golden gate..

They witnessed many while filming the bridge.

It's sad.. but the net I think is a waste of time, if someone is going to want to die they will figure a way out to do it, you all can't fix that.

I think its worse that we most people become so caught in the dramatic thought of 'suicide' and what they need to do to prevent it on the bridge, they completely forget that every so often a car drifts over the yellow pegs and someone, usually dies...

How or why aren't we preventing accidental death?