I hope what you just read strikes you as hard as it struck me. A quote from the article states: "The Golden Gate Bridge is considered one of the world's most popular spot for suicides, with a jump survival rate of only about 2 percent."
Yet it is also one of the most beautiful, elegant and useful structures in the United States?! What! How can the two go together?
In the past ten years the have been almost 300 deaths on the Golden Gate Bridge. Wikipedia says, it is the most popular suicide location in the entire world. Given such a huge number, shouldn't we do something about it? Look at the picture below. Right on a pole on the bridge is a crisis hotline and payphone for anyone to call if suicidal. Is this promoting the bridge as a commonly used suicide location? I'm not sure about how I feel about the sign.
One more thing to notice. See in the picture, how low the red bar is. It is SO easy to jump off of and SO easy to even fall off of! Couldn't California put some sort of net or chain fence a little bit higher? It seems this sign, and the easy access is just asking for trouble.
I felt personally impacted by the story, I, myself have been to the gorgeous Golden Gate many times. It hurts me hear these stories accompanied by shocking statistics. Do you think we are doing enough in prevention? Or have we seemed to "accept" it and moved on?
While I am also horrified by these statistics, I tend to think there is really nothing else we can do to prevent suicide attempts off the bridge. People who are suicidal are extremely depressed and obsessed with death. Making it a bit harder to jump will not stop them. I think the real focus should be depression and suicide prevention and education in schools. Both the people who survived the jumps in the past two months have been teenagers!
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