| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/3/2008 7:36:08 PM | By now many of you have heard that a woman attempting to commit sucide shut the Iron Memorial Workers Bridge down for 6 hours on Canada Day. Some people are particularly upset - including our own Transit Minister - that a person attempting suicide could cause a bridge to be closed leading to traffic gridlock. Other people say it had to be done this way to save the woman's life.
What are your thoughts on this?
Aside 1: On the Golden Gate Bridge, they have telephones to Crisis Centres for wanna be jumpers.
Aside 2: I have heard in some cities when a person is holding up traffic because they are contemplating jumping, people become angry and yell, "Jump, jump!" | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/3/2008 7:44:57 PM | How dare she interrupt the lives of others....gawd what a selfish woman.....what was she thinking....sigh....
Seriously......I am surprised there are not more jumpers these days....
Life and the people we live with can be so cruel...a meeting to discuss sales, or getting to the fireworks on time is far more important in our wonderful society these days than the emotional despair of some woman.
I have mentioned before in some of my other posts...Altruisim is becoming or has largely become a thing of the past....we are the "ME" generation.... GET USE TO IT !
CC | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/3/2008 7:49:25 PM | A big net under the bridge to catch jumpers?
An official (fire chief?) said they had to close the bridge to all traffic because they could not hear the despondent woman's voice, due to her location.
I wonder if they could have compromised and let vehicles go through but at 10 km/hour speed limit, single lane. alternating on the lane furthest from her. A quiet trickle would have been far better than total blockage and likely would have let the police and fire crews do their difficult jobs at the same time.
OR | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/3/2008 8:03:59 PM |
A big net under the bridge to catch jumpers?
In NYC they would let them jump. It was like they had an un-written rule about jumpers. Give them half an hour them let them dive.
For the most part jumpers are just sreaming for help and attention and they usually climb down. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/3/2008 9:38:01 PM |
Other people say it had to be done this way to save the woman's life.Other people say it had to be done this way to save the woman's life. - Xavery
I have always wondered of the logic of this. Would it not be possible to just close off traffic on the one side & allow traffic on the
other side. Most bridges in the Lower Mainland are at least 4 lanes, aren't they? Allowing traffic (1 lane each direction) on the
other side, would slow traffic, but much less. It seems to me that it might be possible. Perhaps someone should suggest this to the
police? Or whoever it is, that makes these decisions.
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Aside 2: I have heard in some cities when a person is holding up traffic because they are contemplating jumping, people become angry and yell, "Jump, jump!" - Xavery
People's selfishness & lack of compassion absolutely appalls me!
I lost my beloved nephew to suicide 7 years ago; if I heard someone say that, I'd want to throw him/her over myself, I'd be so F*cking angry.
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Aside 1: On the Golden Gate Bridge, they have telephones to Crisis Centres for wanna be jumpers. -Xavery
They are looking at installing them on the Lions Gate bridge & I have read that the new Golden Ears bridge will have suicide
barriers. They are even considering requiring them on ALL new bridge construction. If it saves even one life, the cost will
be worth it. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/3/2008 9:44:20 PM |
Some people are particularly upset - including our own Transit Minister
I wonder if Kevin Falcon would have been as upset if he wasn't caught in that traffic. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/3/2008 9:55:14 PM | I was stuck in the traffic as I had taken a day trip to Bowen. I have compassion for this woman and trust that they closed the bridge for good reason. I do wish, however, that they had traffic cops directing traffic in North Van.
As this was totally out of my control, I made the best of it. I read a magazine, listened to the radio and gave away my map book to a couple of guys in a moving van that didn't know how to re-route themselves to Langley. The couple behind me had a good laugh as one of the guys kept running back in bare feet to ask me directions. Made me smile...and sometimes you just need to make lemonade in these crazy situations. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/3/2008 10:45:33 PM | Of course she just wanted the attn or she would have taken the plunge right away,just like someone that slits their wrists
across instead of up and down.
Makes me think of our new bridge in k-town though,it's higher and I bet some attn whore is going to give it a whirl.
Just not whilst I'm trying to cross it I hope. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/3/2008 11:15:42 PM | | The lack of compassion for someone who is obviously needs help is appalling. I guess that she is just one person on this busy planet whose life holds no meaning or consideration to people that don't know her. Suicide is an awful end to a persons life and the tragedy of the situation doesn't mean a damn thing unless it is happening to someone that is close to you. Shame on the unfeeling, selfish people who could only think of the traffic situation. Maybe if this story had ended in her death you will think it was all worthwhile to be held up for so long. At least you would have got home at some point and lived to see another day. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 2:22:46 AM | Build anti suicide fencing on these bridges...problem solved....end of story.
...We will no doubt see more jumpers choosing high traffic holidays for their personal causes...look at all the attention they can get.
...If you compassionate ones would have been stuck with your families inside a vehicle...with reserved tickets for the Horseshoe Bay ferry,....with the prospect of having to sleep overnight in your vehicles in the BC Ferries parking lot....you would be arm in arm with everyone else demanding a solution.
This 13 year old...second attempt too...caused havoc for 50,000 people.
Like I said...build anti suicide fencing on the bridges....end of story
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 2:31:19 AM | It was a 13 year old child ?? Oh my goodness !
I would hope that the city was brought to a halt as well if my 13 year old child
was crying for help atop of the bridge deck.
I was caught in the traffic for 2 1/2 hours just trying to get from one point on the north shore to another. I have to admit i was annoyed as my kids got restless and were bickering in the back seat. Once i heard it was a potential suicide I just hoped the incident would end without tragedy. If I had known it was a child I think i would have been even more compassionate. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 2:48:33 AM | I was present years ago just below the Patullo Bridge on the Surrey side when a jumper was atop that span and you talk about other cities where they scream "JUMP!!" well look no further than Surrey. I got to hear a chorus of it and guess what, he jumped.... and he lived although I hear he will never walk and survives on the tax payers tab.
I hold sympathy for those who have the illness and cannot cope with it but there are those who are just wanting attention and pull stunts like this just for the attention. It would be quite easy to jump from a building (you only need to fall over 5 stories for it to be fatal) or jumping from a cliffside of a mountain. The only problem is there is nobody to tell them things will be ok in the forest and nobody needs to stop and pay attention because there are other routes around buildings but a bridge...... well you make thousands stop and say "it's gonna be ok just come down" mostly because they just want to get on with their own lives. They don't care that buddy on the bridge just lost his home or wife left him for the gardener, hell most of em would be happy if the guy came down and talked to someone so they could get going again.
So build an anti suicide fence or put netting down but realize there will be those with the resolve to get by any fence to make their point , it's only too bad they don't use this drive to find a solution to problems in their lives rather than a way to get attention. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 6:49:46 AM | ^^^^
I know that it is the height of summer but damn it is bloody COLD in here!!!!!!!
I have met some cold fish in this pond. Brrr | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 9:43:24 AM | To those that ask why they close the bridge and don’t do the single lane traffic thing. It’s for your own dam safety!!! Like think about it! You all think the person up there having the pity party is going to jump in to the water…..well maybe hit a boat and really end their miserable lives.
What if a gust of wind blows them the other way and the sack of shit ends up doing a nose dive right through your windshield?
Like it would be one thing if you had the camcorder rolling and you could put it on you tube. But what if you don’t? Then there’s one hell of a mess and that would tie up the bridge for many more hours.
Besides their ***hole I’ve always wondered what goes through their minds at that last moment? | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 9:51:53 AM | Congratulations Xavery, you created a disgusting ,cold inhumane thread that is obviously bringing out the worst in many POF . Maybe you could pick a subject that doesn't flaunt the unhappiness and tragedy in people lives . And also try to not pick a minor who at 13 years of age is comtemplating suicide. What drove this poor lonely child to do something this drastic? I am sitting here with tears in my eyes thinking about my own daughter who will one day be this age.
This thread disgusts me and should be removed. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 9:56:27 AM | Maybe this was the only thing that this poor child could think of to get people to listen to her and then when all the police and everything happen, she was probably more afraid than before.
Yes, shutting down the bridge and messy everyone up for 5hrs is a pain but maybe this girl will get the help she needs and go on to do something good in this world. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 10:05:34 AM | Ok... this just made me think about all the feet washing up on shores. 
Suicide is a sad reality unfortunately... not speaking of it is not going to change that. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 10:08:08 AM | | The person "jumping" was not a 13 year old.As a matter of fact it was a elderly woman.I wonder if they could not have passed her a mega phone or used a set of walkie talkies to communicate with her? Then as another person posted let through one line of traffic each way at like 10 Kms a hour? You would think by now they would have a plan set in place if this happens? Its not like this is the first time there have been similiar situations on that bridge or on many others everywhere. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 10:57:17 AM | The only plan that would work is prevention. Prevent people from being able to jump. As for the traffic well, "someone" summed that up. They couldn't possibly allow traffic through fast or slow as the person could have decided to use one of those vehicles as the mechanism to end their life.
It is obvious that when someone climbs over a bridge deck to jump regardless of whether it is for attention or they are attempting to end their life, they are emotionally not in their "right minds" and are therefore their movements and actions are not predictable.
This happens far more than people are aware in this province. It doesnt have to be a high bridge when it spans a swift moving river. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 11:45:00 AM | It's so disheartening to see the lack of compassion for those with a mental illness. I just pray that woman was not one of your relatives; I also pray that none of you ever have to experience the depths of depression like some of us struggle with every - single - day.
Mental illness can strike anyone, at any time. To label these people as "attention seekers" is horrible and completely dispassionate. Maybe in a sense they are attention seekers - they're asking for help while fighting the Black Dog that keeps barking at them to end their lives. Maybe she didn't have depression; maybe she suffered from schizophrenia and she was being told to jump by command hallucinations. Maybe she wasn't ever going to jump, but went to the bridge because she did want to end her life, and when the cops came, that was her chance to get someone to listen to her. Maybe a combination of medication she was on was putting her into a hypomanic state. Maybe the new medication she'd been switched to was causing this depressed state - it does happen and it's a very real risk of some antidepressants where the risk is there for the first 2 weeks of treatment. Maybe her mother died, whom she was close to, and she didn't know how to cope with the grief. There are hundreds of possibilities why she chose to do what she did.
I've typed countless reports on psychiatric patients who end up referred to the psychiatric ward by their family physicians and I can't count how many times, when the patient is a woman and the family doctor is a man, their referral note brushes them off saying they're a "hypochondriac" or "chronic complainer" - only to see the same woman back in the ED a month later after taking an over dose or in on spousal abuse because her husband didn't like how she opened his beer.
These people aren't attention seekers and this is why there needs to be more awareness to mental health issues. When you're in the depths of a depression, you do not think in terms of "attention seeking" - every thing in your body is telling you that YOU don't deserve to live. That YOU are such a horrible person, who could ever love YOU? May as well just end it all. Many of them do - there are FAR more attempted suicides in actuality than those reported in the media and there are FAR more bridge jumpers than you hear about in the news.
It's an incredibly bad mark on your karma to wish any of these people harm. In many, many cases you cannot help being diagnosed with a mental illness; it's not something you'd wish to be tagged with. In many cases, it can be hereditary, in other cases it's substance induces - chronic marijuana use, chronic other drug use, chronic alcohol use, etc. Anyone can be hit with a mental illness at ANY time in their life, no matter their history; maybe the next time someone threatens to kill themselves, ends up being your child - your mother - your father - your sibling - your aunt - your uncle - your cousin - or your best friend.
I pray that all those people angry that the bridge was shut down because the police COULD NOT HEAR this woman in order to help her, didn't go home and find out it was their wife or daughter. But then, maybe it would be a much needed wake up call.
A bit of personal information: My father was the same way many of you here are. Thought those with a mental illness deserved it, were attention seeking losers, etc. Until that is - I tried to kill myself and almost succeeded when I was 15 years old. Until I ended up in the psychiatric ward for 2 months under suicide watch. Why did I try to end my life? The reasons are multifactorial, but basically I had a break down - I couldn't cope mentally with the issues that I'd been going through nonstop for 10 years. Since I thought the problem was with ME,ending my life seemed about the right idea. Up until then, dad thought anyone who tried to commit suicide was stupid, a loser, an attention seeker, selfish, etc. Until, that is, I ended up in the ER.
I am a huge advocate for mental health awareness; breaking the stigmas of these disorders will SAVE LIVES because people will not be embarrassed to seek help - they will understand that it is NOT THEIR FAULT and be more willing to talk to people instead of feeling they have no way out.
Every day for me it's a constant battle to keep the Black Dog at bay. I refuse to take medication because the ones I have taken have changed my personality and some have sent me into hypomanic episodes or given me diffuse confusion. But many, many days I have to force myself out of bed, when every fiber of my body is telling me it's no use, no one cares if I wake up, no one will care if I disappear. That's not ME talking, that's my depression - and *I* have to conquer it. Is it healthy I'm not being treated? No. It leads to me being in what I call "ruts"; weeks where I can do nothing but cry daily, feel generally crappy about myself and life, and wish I hadn't been born. But it clears and I go on with life. One day though - I'm scared that it won't clear. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Some people have no recourse; society puts such a stigma on mental illness that some people view it as something shameful to be diagnosed with. That you really are a loser if you have a mental health issue. You don't say this stuff to cancer patients; that by going to chemo they're attention seekers. They can't help (most times) being diagnosed with cancer. There's no difference in mental health. These are serious diagnoses that can end many, many lives if left untreated. | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 11:47:22 AM |
To those that ask why they close the bridge and don’t do the single lane traffic thing. It’s for your own dam safety!!! Like think about it! You all think the person up there having the pity party is going to jump in to the water…..well maybe hit a boat and really end their miserable lives.
What if a gust of wind blows them the other way and the sack of shit ends up doing a nose dive right through your windshield?
Like it would be one thing if you had the camcorder rolling and you could put it on you tube. But what if you don’t? Then there’s one hell of a mess and that would tie up the bridge for many more hours.
Besides their ***hole I’ve always wondered what goes through their minds at that last moment?
I pray your child never ends up on a bridge, or sitting in the ED with a slashed throat. Maybe then you'll have some compassion for the "sack of shit". | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 1:14:17 PM | BRAVA! Halokitty Passionately, Magnificently and Bravely said!!!
Thank you for daring to share your story.
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 1:34:10 PM | Halo,
Your comments are always very articulate and more often than not you seem extremely well versed. In this particular post, you are extremely BRAVE.
I commend you for put a very REAL post in this thread where others wouldn't have the guts and will wax on about how frustrating it is to be impeded in their commute, in the papaer someone is also SUING the police for the hold up... I hope that as$wipe reads what you wrote!
YOU GO GIRL.... Ever need help keeping that dog at bay, just ask!! | |
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| Bridge Closure Due to Jumper???
Posted: 7/4/2008 2:16:09 PM |
Congratulations Xavery, you created a disgusting ,cold inhumane thread that is obviously bringing out the worst in many POF . Maybe you could pick a subject that doesn't flaunt the unhappiness and tragedy in people lives . And also try to not pick a minor who at 13 years of age is comtemplating suicide. What drove this poor lonely child to do something this drastic? I am sitting here with tears in my eyes thinking about my own daughter who will one day be this age.
This thread disgusts me and should be removed. Red Rum
I may have created the thread but I certainly did not write the responses. Red Rum - If this thread upsets you, don't read it. People need to talk about these things. I did not know it was a 13 year old girl. It really doesn't matter how old the potential jumper was, it is more about bridge closures. I think you need to get a grip on reality. Your daughter will be 13, but hopefully not suicidal. I cannot be responsible for the reactions to this thread.
When I posted this, I thought maybe this "jump, jump," thing happened in Vancouver, but I wasn't sure. I think part of the reason people may do this is because they don't really believe the potential jumper is suicidal. It really is a poor way to commit suicide, because jumpers don't always die and sometimes end up seriously disabled. Sorry, to upset the faint of heart, but this life and death and the way we are. | |
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