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Barriers may be one way to stop suicide jumps into the Rappahannock River from Interstate 95 Date published: 1/30/2009
BY JIM HALL It was 8:30 that Monday night in 2007, warm and clear, when the young woman stopped her car in the northbound lanes of the Interstate 95 bridge and leaped into the Rappahannock River. It happened again last year, this time from the southbound lanes. A woman abandoned her car, climbed the bridge railing and jumped to her death. And again two weeks ago, a man this time. He crashed his truck into the northbound guardrail, got out and jumped. Since 2000, at least 10 people have jumped from Fredericksburg-area bridges and overpasses. Some died. The toll doesn't include two people who were talked out of jumping by police, one on the Falmouth Bridge and the other on the Blue-Gray Parkway bridge. Also excluded is the man who fell from the Falmouth Bridge in 2002. No one is sure if his death was an accident or suicide. But no structure attracts the distraught the way the twin bridges for Interstate 95 do. At about 90 feet above the Rappahannock, the spans are among the tallest structures in the area. A person who leaps from one of them experiences a three-second drop into the shallow water below. The impact is like being hit by a car: broken bones, lacerated organs and internal bleeding. "Death is instantaneous," said Dr. Frederic Phillips, the region's medical examiner. Three times in the last three years, and five times since 2002, people have died leaping into the river from the interstate bridges. The toll is compounded by the public services that must be brought to bear and the heavy traffic that results. Can anything be done to stop bridge-jumping? Should anything be done? Would barriers help, or would they simply move the jumpers somewhere else? A DIFFERENT DEATH In Virginia, suicides occur more than twice as often as homicides, according to Virginia Department of Health statistics. The Fredericksburg area had 43 suicides in 2007, the latest year for which statistics are available. More than half of the suicides were shootings. The deaths are usually private, done in basements or backyards. Bridge-jumping is different. Bridges are convenient, perhaps the only lethal method available for some people. And jumping is usually a public event, even hostile, as if the person is saying, "This is what you've made me do and the world is going to know," Phillips said.
The reason that we must intercede is due to the mental state of someone trying to end their life. If we are talking about a well planned, rational, and supported by family members suicide, then that is different than someone spur of the moment jumping off a bridge. We must help those that cannot help themsleves.
if people want to end their life because it sucks for some reason...let them. Why should you or anyone else judge whether someone can end their life or not. You probably believe only the State has the right to determine if we live or die. NOT!
Boy have people become jaded. Just be grateful it is not YOU who is in so much despair they commit suicide...or one of your loved ones. I have personally experienced the suicide of a person that was close to me and it is extremely devastating.
What has this world come to that all these people have nothing to say but ugly sarcastic comments, even jokes?
Suicide is not a joke...it causes horrible grief for the families and friends that are left behind.
The Golden Gate Bridge is the most popular place in the world to commit suicide, and they have not built barriers on that bridge to deter jumpers. The main two reasons are cost and effectiveness. I suggest we follow their lead and explore other options. PS For you guys who are "inconvenienced" by a jumper, please practice a little compassion. Someone must have some sort of incredible problem to see suicide as their only option.
Where were all you guys when the Secular progressive liberals that normally post here were all over me for similar statements. Give them a diving board and a separate walkway to it. Might even be able to charge admission.
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