California invests $76M to solve suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge.
The Golden Gate Bridge is an iconic landmark of the Bay Area and a national treasure of the United States. The bridge has also served as the platform for the suicides of over 1,400 people.
On Friday, the bridge’s board and the National Park Service approved a deal that will allow construction builders of a suicide barrier to store their materials on park lands. The deal was necessary because the National Park Service controls the land at the bridge. According to SFGate.com:
The suicide barrier, which is estimated to cost a total of $76 million, will consist of a giant net that extends 20 feet below and 20 feet out from the pedestrian-friendly half of the bridge. The net will feature stainless-steel cables that will “absorb” any person who falls into them, making it difficult to escape until help arrives, the Associated Press reports.
The board approved construction late last year and recently announced that the project will go out to bid this Tuesday. Once construction begins, the board anticipates that the project will take about three years to complete.
Discussions about a suicide barrier for the Golden Gate Bridge stretch back to the 1950s, but until now, nothing has been done.
In addition to preventing jumpers from falling to their deaths, the bridge board hopes that the net will serve as a deterrent jumping altogether. In a scientific paper published last month in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry, the authors say such deterrence is a likely outcome.
From their work, the researchers found that suicide barriers were, indeed, effective — they can reduce the number of suicides by more than 90% in high-risk locations, reports Rachel Gross at Slate. But if you want to be especially thorough, then you should combine the three main forms of suicide prevention:
- Restrict access to high-risk areas
- Include signs with information about seeking help
- Establish suicide barriers
To cover the cost of the barrier, several services are contributing:
- $27 million is the largest single sum that will be given by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission
- $22 million will come from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
- $20 million from the Golden Gate Bridge Districts
- $7 million from the Mental Health Services Act funds
-Bill at
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