suicide, prevention and help......

i really have no interest in information like 'how to'.

here goes, i purchased some land in the toas, n.m. area this summer.
as a vendor of markets and shows there's an area next to the rio grand gorge bridge where vendors like myself are allowed to sell their wares.
durring the couple of months i was there 3 people took the dive off the bridge, killing themselves, making it 8 on the year so far.
to give you an better idea about what i'm getting at, here is the link.

wiki, gorge bridge

one jumper i witnessed first hand. dude parks his car in the middle of the bridge. spends some time at the railing, cop pulls up and stops, rolls down the window to ask if he needed help.
dude just turns around, leaps the railing.
my question is, what is a life worth, should new mexico pay for a fense of sorts, a net under the bridge, call boxes or ?
on average about 12 people a year jump from the bridge.

Its not the bridge thats the problem. Fence of that bridge or put a net under it won't solve anything, there are always more bridges. People don't even need a bridge to kill themselves. The people need to be helped before they get to that point where they are going to check themselves out. I think people need to talk. In New Zealand, which has one of the highest suicides per capita, their answer is to pretend it doesn't happen and not talk about it, for fear it will cause more, this approach differently doesn't work. Communication is the key.

It would be pointless for New Mexico to try to prevent such a tragedy. Then what, take away fire arms, rope, medications etc?

A family member of mine, in his young teenage years, commited sucide. He hung himself, almost sitting down, off a wall shelf. Where there is a will there is a way.

my question is, what is a life worth, should new mexico pay for a fense of sorts, a net under the bridge, call boxes or ? on average about 12 people a year jump from the bridge.

I don't mean to sound cold on this, but no. They shouldn't spend a dime to build a thing. If people want to die that badly, who are we in all seriousness to build physical obstacles at great expense they'll just go around anyway. It isn't like this is the GG bridge where people may get lost in the moment and act on a wild idea.

People have to go out of their way to get to THIS spot and obviously have a pretty solid plan of what they're going there for. If I really had something so terrible in life that I'd be willing to do this, I'd sure resent some nosy neighbor type trying to save me from myself. I'd just find another way, anyway.

Look at it this way. It's a zero chance of survival, so no aborted attempts leading to horrible lives out of a botched try. More importantly though....They aren't going postal at a workplace or school or shopping mall. They're just erasing themselves from the world. I'd never encourage it...but it isn't the state's place to build things meant to stop citizens from doing this, either. Just my thoughts....

The "fix" isn't a modification to this or any of the other hundreds of bridges and buildings that people jump off of.

Gotta fix society - If you have a net or a fence that will do it I'm all ears.

On a side note, this reminded me of a documentary about the Golden Gate Bridge called The Bridge. It's not gruesome or grotesque but it talks about the GGB and how many people jump yearly, highlights some personal stories and even talks to jumpers that survived. Really sobering to watch, I can't imagine witnessing this in real life. The documentary also talks briefly about brainstormed preventative measures and the various reasons for not applying them.

It's a sad fact that anywhere a bridge hangs high above ground or water people go there to jump.

reply to post by ZeussusZ


i totally agree about the communication thing.
toas really tries to sweep it under the rug also.
there is usually a small article which usually read like, 'damn, another one jumped', and that's it.
after the guy jumped i was talking with one of the state police about it, he wanted to know what i saw, which was not much more than i already explained.
one thing he said to me is that after all these years of gorge jumpers he claimed that many that want to kill themselves can't shoot themselves or hang themselve yet can take the leap off the bridge.
i did't really understand his point completely.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000

my question is, what is a life worth, should new mexico pay for a fense of sorts, a net under the bridge, call boxes or ? on average about 12 people a year jump from the bridge.

I don't mean to sound cold on this, but no. They shouldn't spend a dime to build a thing. If people want to die that badly, who are we in all seriousness to build physical obstacles at great expense they'll just go around anyway. It isn't like this is the GG bridge where people may get lost in the moment and act on a wild idea.

People have to go out of their way to get to THIS spot and obviously have a pretty solid plan of what they're going there for. If I really had something so terrible in life that I'd be willing to do this, I'd sure resent some nosy neighbor type trying to save me from myself. I'd just find another way, anyway.

Look at it this way. It's a zero chance of survival, so no aborted attempts leading to horrible lives out of a botched try. More importantly though....They aren't going postal at a workplace or school or shopping mall. They're just erasing themselves from the world. I'd never encourage it...but it isn't the state's place to build things meant to stop citizens from doing this, either. Just my thoughts....

Obviously, for some people, communication is not the key. Sometimes you can't fix a forever shattered emotion, sometimes you can't fix the horridness in which an event leaves on ones future. Some people realise this, and take their life. It solves a lot, for them, even though the people who mightve knew them grieved, where were they before whoever did it. That will be the main thought. Someone commited suicide last week by jumping a 9 story building, whom went to the same school I did. There is at least 2 a year. You can't stop it.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


i do agree to a point, yet, if i'm not mistaken, most suicides are heavily depressed individuals, people with mental problems that could be lessened with tratment.
for these i'd like to hope there could be help.
wishful thinking, i know.

I live about a mile away from Beachy Head near Eastbourne in the UK and the suicide rate there is at least 20 a year. It's a really spooky place with memorials all over the place. I have heard an urban myth about how some guy jumped off but survived by landing on someone who'd jumped off previously. ! crazy stuff.

Rather than build fences or nets there's volunteers who patrol around looking for people behaving oddly and the local pub, very near to the site, is suposed to look out for people too.

At the end of the day it's very hard to stop someone who's totally comitted to killing themselves, if not impossible.

The equation is sadly simple: people commit suicide when their problems exceed their coping mechanisms.

The bridge is just the mechanism to the end. It is not a source. That should be obvious. Better a bridge then a loved one coming home to find them in some form or another.

If anything were to happen to my son, you would hear about me jumping off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on the five o'clock news. I am afraid of bridges, but I might as well face a fear and have an adrenaline rush on my way out,.

reply to post by TinkerHaus


Ah, I watched this documentery as well. It was sad but enlightening. Come to think of it though, I do believe they did spend extra money on the suicides...not fences or nets, but on recovering the bodies. So, now that you mention it, I do wonder if the OP main question is a bit more complicated than it first sounded. If they already spend the money on recovery, why not try the fences? hmmm... food for thought.

reply to post by moondancer811


yes, recovering the bodies from the gorge can include a helicopter and/or crane.
rascuers on rafts etc..............
good point that i forgot to mention.