Last stop: Battling the draw of a suicide bridge

Why jump off a bridge?
Some believe that nothing short of a barrier or fence will solve the problem for good. That’s been the response in other places.

A barrier is being studied for San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, widely regarded as the most popular suicide spot in the world. At least 1,250 people have jumped from the bridge since it opened in 1937.

Construction of an 8-foot fence is expected to begin next year to deter jumpers at Seattle’s Aurora Bridge, where at least 40 people have killed themselves in the past decade. A barrier is also in the works for the Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Suicides were reduced from around 20 a year to zero at Toronto’s Bloor Street Viaduct after the construction of a barrier in 2003.

Why jump off a bridge? Survivors have cited convenience and the romanticism associated with ending their lives in beautiful locales, floating through space before being enveloped by the water and then darkness.

“They think of transcendental flight through the air and then they’re going to hit the water and drown,” says Dr. Lanny Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology. “This isn’t in their mind that it’s going to be as traumatic a death as it is. It has some magical thinking attached to it.”

“Maybe they think it’s a sure thing,” offers Cardwell, the state trooper. “Maybe for those who don’t want to commit suicide, it’s a way to get attention pretty quickly.”

“I honestly have no idea why,” says Mary McNamara of Sarasota, whose troubled 31-year-old son became the first bridge suicide of 2008 on Feb. 12. His body still hasn’t been found.

A 49-year-old woman who killed herself at the Skyway in August told one of her sisters that she decided to do it after seeing “The Bridge,” a 2006 documentary about jumpers at the Golden Gate Bridge.

'It was a big mistake'
Experts note that once a locale gets a reputation as a suicide spot, it inevitably attracts more people there to do the deed. And the Skyway’s reputation is established.

Chris O'Meara / AP A crucifix and red rose float in the water near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Ten people jumped to their death from the majestic Florida Gulf Coast landmark last year.

In 1993, a 16-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy stepped off together in a lovers’ suicide pact. News reports at the time said they were upset that the boy’s mother was sending him away to live with his father.

In 1998, a 100-pound Rottweiler named Shasta went over with her owner, a 44-year-old Lakeland man. The dog survived and became a local media sensation as animal-lovers clamored to adopt her.

A Tampa woman named Katherine Freeman fatally shot her ex-husband and tried to strangle his wife in May 2000. She drove to the bridge and jumped, only to become one of the half dozen or so people who have survived the fall from the center. She recovered and was sentenced to life in prison.

A year later, a St. Petersburg man named Hanns Jones also survived.

The now 42-year-old artist and inventor was despondent over business pressures, heavy drinking and a horrible fight with his wife.

At around 5 p.m. on May 30, 2001, he drove his old red Ford pickup to the top. The John Lennon song, “I’m Losing You,” was playing on the radio on the way. Or maybe it was in his head.

“Right after I jumped I thought it was a big mistake,” he says.

It wasn’t what he expected.

“You just accelerate, accelerate so fast and then it stops,” he says. “But when you stop, you don’t feel like you hit water. You feel like you hit the concrete.”

Despite multiple rib fractures, internal bleeding and a collapsed lung, he was able to swim to the rocks near one of the pylons. He was sitting there naked when rescuers arrived, and then spent weeks in the hospital recovering.

Jones says he’s fine and happy today, and he often wonders why he survived when so many others didn’t. But he understands why they come to jump.

“You get to that point and it seems surreal,” he says. “You just want that unbelievable pain to go away.”

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