Last Exit: Suicide and the Coronado Bridge

Published: Tuesday, May 6, 2008 7:41 PM PDT

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If you drive down Highway 163 or Interstate 5 in San Diego and glance skyward, you'll see lots of pedestrian bridges with fences. Look closely and you might notice something unusual: the fences are quite high, sometimes well over six feet.

Why are the fences so tall? Because people kept hurtling rocks and blocks of concrete over the railings, injuring drivers below.

Longtime residents may remember the most horrific case, when two boys threw a six-pound concrete block from an I-5 overpass onto the windshield of a Corvette in 1988.

The impact fractured a passenger's skull, sent him into a months-long coma and ended his career as an actor and model. Other motorists were seriously injured by debris, including several in 2000.

The California Department of Transportation responded by erecting fences on several overpasses. Judging from news reports, the problem seems to have faded away.

But Caltrans hasn't put up any fences on the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge, where 236 people--and counting--have thrown themselves to their deaths. The railing is still just three feet tall.

I wrote about this topic last week in a series of stories:

• Suicide Magnet: The Problem



• Suicide Magnet: No Barrier to Despair



• The Survivor: Right Place, Wrong Time
• The New Media: See No Suicide



• The Personal Story: Death from Above



• The Impact: Ravaged Bodies



• The Cop: Jumper Control


Should Caltrans, which runs the Coronado Bridge, worry about falling people as much as it did about falling rocks? Or are these two entirely different situations?

Officials in other cities--including Seattle and San Francisco--are taking action regarding their own "suicide bridges." Near Santa Barbara, Caltrans is paying $1 million to install fences on a bridge that accounts for an average of one suicide a year.

If someone should step in and start raising a fuss about the Coronado Bridge's death toll, who should it be? San Diego? Coronado? Local shrinks? And why hasn't anyone given much thought to this problem for more than 20 years?

Send in your thoughts and theories along with any questions you may have about this issue. I'll answer your queries over the next day.



-- RANDY DOTINGA








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1. Marie wrote on May 6, 2008 9:23 PM:
"Hi Randy, I liked your articles very much and discussed them with friends and family. It seems that many of us believe that if a person wants to commit suicide, perhaps they should be able to. Since there aren't currently any legal ways to commit suicide, folks have to go to extreme measures to do so. At least jumping from the Coronado Bridge is not hurting other people. Except in the case where the police intervened and a police dog was killed. This opens up the whole other issue of how we view suicide in this country. Are you willing to tackle that issue next?"

2. Marie wrote on May 6, 2008 9:23 PM:
"Hi Randy, I liked your articles very much and discussed them with friends and family. It seems that many of us believe that if a person wants to commit suicide, perhaps they should be able to. Since there aren't currently any legal ways to commit suicide, folks have to go to extreme measures to do so. At least jumping from the Coronado Bridge is not hurting other people. Except in the case where the police intervened and a police dog was killed. This opens up the whole other issue of how we view suicide in this country. Are you willing to tackle that issue next?"

3. Thomas Edison wrote on May 7, 2008 9:02 AM:
"I doubt that the City of San Diego's willingness to erect fences on several of its freeway overpasses could be mimicked on the Coronado Bay Bridge since the Board of San Diego Port Commissioners would have to vote on the matter. Look at the Port's current preoccupation with soliciting bids for its new public art project to illuminate the Coronado Bay Bridge. The Port has budgeted 2 to 3 million dollars for this future display of lights!!! I'd say these funds could go to making both a functional and artistic barrier that San Diego could be proud of."

4. JR wrote on May 7, 2008 10:16 AM:
"Recently, the Pacific News Service had a piece on a cleric who regularly walks the SF Bay Bridge on his own time, at his own direction, in an effort to help those intending suicide. It seems to be good work; the gentleman has saved a few lives. One hopes a few of the local clerics might follow their colleague's example here. But besides that, the issue of barriers on bridges may be a feel-good idea that substitutes for effective outreach to the distraught. Like lifeguards at the beaches, spending money to save lives is money well spent. The same ought to apply to suicide prevention here, too."

5. Garrett Glasgow wrote on May 26, 2008 12:28 PM:
"Just an update on the proposed suicide barrier in Santa Barbara -- the cost has now been revealed to be $2.8 million. The debate in Santa Barbara is whether we should spend that much money to address one suicide per year, or if that money could be better spent to help more people elsewhere."




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