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Two bridges spanning the Hudson River just north of the city will be getting suicide prevention phones instead of physical barriers following three fatal leaps in close succession earlier this year. The phones to be installed on the Tappan Zee and Bear Mountain Bridges will be connected to a 24-hour suicide prevention hotline. Plans for installing physical barriers were turned down as being too expensive to install and maintain.
The plan to install the phones is being undertaken by the New York State Bridge Authority. NYC's bridges are controlled by a number of different agencies. The Port Authority of NY & NJ oversees the George Washington Bridge. the MTA is in charge of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. And the NYC Dept. of Transportation takes care of the city's East River Bridges.
They're generally not reported in the media, but NYC bridges experience a regular number of people threatening to commit suicide on them. There was one individual on the Queensborough Bridge this weekend, but it appears he was successfully talked down. New York Press once interviewed a former Emergency Services Unit officer whose job was to try to rescue bridge jumpers. He claimed the NYPD has about a 99% success rate.
(leaving the island, by m11ka* at flickr)
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Too bad they didn't do that instead of spending a ton of money putting up chain-link fencing on the Manhattan Bridge and ruining the view.
I don't see the difference between a chain-link fence, & a phone ! If someone has that type of mindset is there any deterrent stopping them from doing something they feel will exercise the "Demons" in their head ? I don't think so, Sure you may stop them this time but will their be anyone around the next time they have a breakdown .
Just a couple of months someone tried to jump off the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge which is just north of the Bear Mountain Bridge.
Once someone decides that suicide is the way out, will they really pick up a phone?
I don't know Robin, but I always thought that the majority of suicide attempts were actually half-hearted cries for attention. And jumping off a bridge seems like a very public and contemplative way to kill onesself. I think the NYPD has a very high rate of convincing people that there are other and better solutions to their problems. If putting a phone on a bridge that someone might be tempted to pick up, it seems like a pretty reasonable form of outreach to the distraught or mentally ill.
"A Long Way Down" by Nick Hornby is a very funny and poignant book about a group of people who stumble upon each other's planned simultaneous suicide attempts at jumping from a London rooftop. I think its point is just the fact that even sharing a miserable life with a group of people can make living it worthwhile. So who knows? A phone couldn't hurt.
Brightliner: I agree that the chain-linked fences on the Manhattan (and W-burg and Q-M bridges) are awful, but, as I understand it, the NYC DOT's primary reason for doing so is to deter people from dropping objects over the edge, particularly on the portions that cross land. Anyone intending to commit suicide would probably be willing to take the extra effort to climb over the fence.
I wish the DOT could come up with a more aesthetically pleasing solution. At times, they have also threatened to install chain-link fences on the Brooklyn Bridge walkway (to protect drivers from dropped objects), but faced greater public opposition.