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"About 20 people take fatal jumps from the span every year, but 38 jumped last year and 19 have leaped so far this year, according to bridge officials."
"The net system, is expected to cost between $40 and $50 million to build. It will cost about $100,000 a year to maintain the nets"
Actually many more people attempt to jump than that. San Francisco media have agreed not to publicize suicides in order not to encourage them. But it hasn't helped, they keep jumping about once or twice every two weeks. The problem was kept hidden. Shamefully some of the Citys most progressive voices were the ones voting against solutions because of aesthetic reasons.
Other bridges and monuments have barriers. It's about time the GG Bridge had one too. It kind of figures they'd end up spending a ridiculous amount though.
The reality:
the "crash-related jumping epidemic" is just a myth. Between Black Thursday and the end of 1929, only four of the 100 suicides and suicide attempts reported in the New York Times were plunges linked to the crash, and only two took place on Wall Street.
[slate.com...]
Who makes these decisions?
Gun legislation doesn't stop criminal use of guns, nets won't stop suicides.
So .. you jump off the bridge, hang in the net for a minute, re-think your life . . . and climb out of the net to continue your journey. That worked.
Many who survived their leap off the bridge said they changed their mind in mid air. Howevever I agree it must be made in a way that a jumper can't jump again from the net.
whose daughter Caley jumped from the bridge in January, said the barrier was a "moral imperative."
I would think the nets on other structures were more to protect people on the ground. Fishing out all those bodies and survivors can't be cheap.
And what is wrong with putting up a fence on this bridge? We are a nation of fence-builders, seems a waste to overlook this talent.
