Work to build a suicide prevention fence across the Aurora Bridge has been underway for months, but there’s still no sign of the fence itself. WSDOT tells us that will all change next week when crews start putting up the fence posts on the west side of the bridge.
So what’s taking so long? WSDOT says it has been dealing with small details they hope will make a big difference in the end. They drilled about 2600 holes for anchor bolts, used an x-ray device to make sure they didn’t hit rebar, and repaired the bridge’s steel that was damaged by corrosion.
The fence posts will go up first, followed by the fence panels. The fence should be finished by the end of the year. Image from WSDOT
25 responses so far ↓
1 Shannon // Nov 5, 2010 at 3:03 pm
In memory of Victor Allen Mitchell Thanksgiving Day 2004 on the south side into the medical facility parking lot and my oldest, Axel D, also on the south side.
Forever in my heart, and always on my mind.
At the very least boys, you’ve got one heckuva headstone.
2 Interested // Nov 7, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Truth be told, this will prevent nothing. Perhaps other than a body falling on something below it. They will simply go to an area in which it does not exist. Another bridge likely. I honestly think it is a waste of time and resources. ALthough I do very much feel bad for the houseboats, and businesses that get the fall over…. I know many. I also know many who have jumped to thier deaths. If people want to jump, they will. Prevention is not a net. It is resources. Use them more wisely in the future perhaps.
3 nprfool // Nov 7, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Interested, you could not be more wrong. Bridge barriers have been going up worldwide for over three decades, and there is a huge body of evidence that shows overwhelmingly that they work to permanently lower suicide rates in an entire region.
The NY Times had an excellent article about this a couple of years back, describing the research, and why these barriers are so effective. Everyone needs to read this before commenting, seriously:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html
There have been extensive discussions on this blog every time a post goes up about it. Do a quick search, and you’ll see. I am too tired to post it all again tonight.
4 Tiktok // Nov 8, 2010 at 12:43 am
How effective were the suicide hotline phones installed a few years ago?
Why no suicide fence on the Ship Canal Bridge? People jump off it and die–not enough to make it worthwhile?
5 nprfool // Nov 8, 2010 at 2:46 am
The phones help, but are not as effective a deterrent as the fences. You need to read the literature for the full explanation, but it has to do with easy access and low railings, coupled with the fact that bridge jumpers are a particularly impulsive group, usually despondent over an acute (and fixable) issue.
Remove the immediate access, and you buy the jumper enough time to get help. Since the driving issue is usually acute, once the crisis passes, so does the urge to commit suicide, in many cases.
There are no planned fences for the Ship Canal Bridge because the suicide rates there are so very low - less than one a year on average, compared to the dozen or so off the Aurora Bridge. The structure of the railings, as well as the lack of pedestrian access, are the reason for this.
There is very little chance that there will be a rise in suicides off other regional bridges once the fence goes up, due to these structural issues. This has been extensively studied, and shown repeatedly that under most circumstances that the barriers prevent the majority of jumpers from moving to a different location (which our region and bridges mirror).
My statements are not simply personal opinion, btw, but are based on many studies on many bridges over the last 30 years or so. There is a strong body of evidence out there, for those who care to look for it.
6 Fremontster // Nov 8, 2010 at 12:16 pm
“Truth be told, this will prevent nothing. Perhaps other than a body falling on something below it. ”
The point of the fences was not to stop people from committing suicide, but to prevent them from doing so in a manner that had them landing on people’s homes, business and parking lots.
7 nprfool // Nov 8, 2010 at 1:14 pm
The fence will also significantly reduce the suicides, Fremonster.
8 Tiktok // Nov 8, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Do we know that the overall number of suicides goes down when a fence goes up? Only a handful jump of the Aurora Bridge each year as it is.
How much good did the phones do? How much did they cost?
9 nprfool // Nov 8, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Yes, TikTok, there have been some excellent studies on regional suicides that show definitively that when a barrer goes up on a popular suicide bridge, the suicide rate in the region goes down by approximately the same amount.
The main exception to this is in in asian countries, where suicide by jumping has a much different cultural significance, but that will not apply here. There is every reason to believe that this barrier will be very effective on this specific bridge.
I do not have statistics about the phones, only anecdotal stories about them helping a few despondent folks. the suicides off the Aurora bridge have continued, however. Once the barrier is up, the rate is widely expected to dramatically decrease.
We will more than make up the cost of the fence in savings on the emergency response teams, and on the damaged property, if you are focused solely on the monetary aspect. On the human side of it, the barrier will be an effective deterrent for some number of impulsive suicides, and will buy the troubled souls (and their loved ones) enough time to seek help, and work on the acute problem.
This is a very effective, proven, and cheap solution to a terrible problem.
10 Tiktok // Nov 9, 2010 at 12:53 am
“We will more than make up the cost of the fence in savings on the emergency response teams, and on the damaged property, if you are focused solely on the monetary aspect. ”
Really? How quickly? The Aurora Bridge averages just under three suicides per year. How much does each emergency response cost? And damaged property sounds like an insurance issue for the property owner, not something the taxpayer covers.
11 nprfool // Nov 9, 2010 at 1:13 pm
No, it averages more than one a month, TikTok.
And the benefits go well beyond the monetary.
12 nprfool // Nov 9, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Meant to say it currently averages to just *under* one a month.
The rate has gone up in recent years, as the population increases, so you can’t simply divide the number of suicides by the number of years the bridge has been around.
13 Tiktok // Nov 9, 2010 at 7:20 pm
The last time the PI talked numbers, this is what they were:
1995: 4
1996: 2
1997: 3
1998: 2
1999: 1
2000: 2
2001: 2
2002: 4
2003: 3
2004: 3
2005: 5
2006: 7
I don’t think those numbers correlate to changes in population size.
14 nprfool // Nov 11, 2010 at 12:44 pm
The numbers are higher when you include attempts, and have risen somewhat since 2006. I base this on reading police reports and on anecdotal evidence, since my SO works nearby, and sees the emergency responders there nearly every month.
Look, I get that you don’t like this fence. But there is solid research behind the effectiveness of these barriers, which is why nearly every community with a suicide bridge is either installing them, or trying to find the funding for it. It is one of those rare solutions that works well, requires a one time investment, and demonstrably saves lives. This will be a good thing.
15 Tiktok // Nov 11, 2010 at 3:01 pm
It only ‘demonstrably saves lives’ if you can provide solid numbers, which I’d love to see, and which you’re…not providing.
I’ve been working next to the Fremont Bridge for the last nine years, and walk or cycle underneath it five days a week, and I’ve yet to see a jumper or the aftermath. It’s not that I don’t think it doesn’t happen, but some people make it sound like it’s endemic, whereas I’ve seen zero official reports that it’s anything other than infrequent. The press and police reluctance to make the numbers public is fine…until we start talk about spending millions not on public mental health funding, but a barrier to keep residents (how many people live under the bridge?) and workers from maybe seeing something nasty a few times a year.
Numbers, or it didn’t happen.
16 nprfool // Nov 11, 2010 at 10:08 pm
Look through some of the previous posts on the bridge, and find the links to the peer reviewed studies I have posted before. You’ll get your “numbers” there, along with the dozens of posts explaining the thirty plus years of research on the topic.
Though I am glad you’ve never personally witnessed some of these attempts, others in the neighborhood have not been so lucky.
17 nprfool // Nov 11, 2010 at 10:18 pm
I’m feeling a little generous tonight, and tracked down my previous list of ten of the more important research papers on the subject. There are many more, and I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to find them. There are also dozens of posts discussing these findings in nearly every blog entry when the bridge barriers are mentioned (including posts by you TikTok). Those are easy to find with the search function.
If you want to skip the research, and just look at a good laymen’s description of how and why the barriers work, provably so, there was a good article published a couple of years ago in the New York Times on the topic:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html
I suggest you do a little reading, TikTok.
—–
1. Where are they now? A follow-up study of suicide attempters from the Golden Gate Bridge.
Seiden RH.
Suicide Life Threat Behav. 1978 Winter;8(4):203-16.
2. Preventing suicide by jumping: the effect of a bridge safety fence.
Pelletier AR.
Inj Prev. 2007 Feb;13(1):57-9.
3. Effectiveness of barriers at suicide jumping sites: a case study
Beautrais AL.
Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2001 Oct;35(5):557-62.
4. (followup on same bridge when barriers were reinstalled in 2003)
Removing bridge barriers stimulates suicides: an unfortunate natural experiment.
Beautrais AL, Gibb SJ, Fergusson DM, Horwood LJ, Larkin GL
Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2009 Jun;43(6):495-7.
5. Effect of barriers on the Clifton suspension bridge, England, on local patterns of suicide: implications for prevention.
Bennewith O, Nowers M, Gunnell D.
Br J Psychiatry. 2007 Mar;190:266-7.
6. (examines the type of people and locales that jumpers use and effectiveness of bridge barriers on certain populations of jumpers)
Suicidal behaviour and suicide from the Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol and surrounding area in the UK: 1994-2003.
Bennewith O, Nowers M, Gunnell D.
Eur J Public Health. 2010 Jul 14.
7. (this one is just a literature review from 1997, but supports the proprosal that barriers work and the majority of twarted jumpers do not make a second attempt)
Suicide by jumping.
Gunnell D, Nowers M.
Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1997 Jul;96(1):1-6.
8. Suicide by jumping and accessibility of bridges: results from a national survey in Switzerland.
Reisch T, Schuster U, Michel K.
Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2007 Dec;37(6):681-7.
9. (large study that concluded educating physicians and restricting access to lethal means prevents suicide)
Suicide prevention strategies: a systematic review.
Mann JJ, Apter A, Bertolote J, Beautrais A, Currier D, … (many others as well)
JAMA. 2005 Oct 26;294(16):2064-74
10. (seminal paper discussing how reducing access to certain suicide methods can permanently reduce suicide rates)
Method availability and the prevention of suicide–a re-analysis of secular trends in England and Wales 1950-1975.
Gunnell D, Middleton N, Frankel S.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2000 Oct;35(10):437-43
18 Tiktok // Nov 12, 2010 at 1:37 am
I’m talking about numbers of deaths from people jumping off the Aurora Bridge. Without recent numbers, we can’t tell if the fence did any good.
19 nprfool // Nov 12, 2010 at 4:20 am
The number of attempted and completed suicides are available, just not easy to come by. If you really feel the need to see hard data, you could comb through the police and EMS records yourself, which are public. That is what researchers will be doing, most likely. And there is no doubt at all that barrier’s effectiveness will be studied by researchers, comparing before and after numbers.
But we are already know the Aurora Bridge is the second most popular suicide bridge in the US, after the Golden Gate (which is also looking to install a barrier). And we are able to make a strong, supported conjecture that the fence will work. The studies I listed above looked at before and after statistics on many other similar bridges around the world going back thirty years, including regional rates as well as rates specific to the structure. Of particular relevance is a study on the Grafton Bridge in New Zealand, which had a fence added, then removed (for other reasons), then added back because suicides shot up during the time the barrier was removed. The data overwhelmingly shows that these fences work to prevent impulsive jumpers from suicide bridges. This is why they are being installed worldwide.
TikTok, I suggest that if you want additional information, you should go read the studies, or at least the NY Times article.
20 Tiktok // Nov 12, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Okay, so you don’t know what the Aurora Bridge numbers are, I get it.
No, I have no interest in combing through the police records. If public money is going to be spent on a project, these numbers should be easily available to the public, as in mentioned in all the press coverage, so we can see that the money is being effectively spent. The numbers which I provided show quite a bit of variance without the fence. They go up, they go down, but they’re never very high. If it’s a slam-dunk given that the fence will be really effective, then come out with the numbers. But, you’ve got to decide what “really effective” is, and as it is, no-one wants to even go on record as to how bad the problem is right now, except from an anecdotal standpoint. There is a point where the city believes it is not cost-effective to build a fence: we know this because one or two people jump off the Ship Canal bridge each year but no-one proposes a fence there because, one or two suicides is (apparently) acceptable versus the cost and inconvenience of building a fence on a heavily traveled section of interstate.
Based on the numbers I’ve seen (and posted), I suspect that fewer than one person a month jumps. The number is not tied to population growth. I wouldn’t be surprised if an equal or greater number of people are killed on the highways by drunken wrong-way drivers in the same period. If the priority is saving lives, we could consider tire-spikes on freeway ramps that would take out the tires of people who drive on the wrong direction. Would we save more lives per million dollars spent this way than the bridge fence? No-one in the public knows because the number of jumpers is a semi-secret. How many people are killed walking across Aurora where it’s divided by the short concrete barrier? Why not put a fence there? The only answer I can see is because the Aurora bridge fence’s main purpose is not to prevent deaths, but to ease the mind of the people who choose to live and work next to the second biggest suicide magnet in America.
21 nprfool // Nov 13, 2010 at 2:41 am
TikTok, I suggest you contact WADOT for the numbers. They will have them.
22 Tiktok // Nov 15, 2010 at 2:36 pm
No, they don’t. Here’s their response:
“Getting a number is difficult. The King County Medical Examiner’s office has records, but needs to do a query to isolate suicides on the bridge. This takes time and costs money, $100 approximately. The other source is the Seattle Police Department. They have records of calls to the bridge, which adds the statistic of jumpers who lived and people who did not jump. But again it takes time and they don’t always have the time to fulfill a request that doesn’t involve a Freedom of Information Act request, so you are at their mercy. I’ve had mixed results with them.
This is probably why the latest numbers came from the PI. They had an investigative staff with the time and resources to request the information. From that number I could only extrapolate based on incomplete info. My guestimate is there have been between 4-8 deaths per year since 2006, and many more attempts and cases of people who did not jump. The number may be a little lower this year, 2-4, due in part I would think to the construction work taking place. “
23 nprfool // Nov 16, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Nice job following up with WADOT, TikTok. Those estimates, 4-8 completed suicides a year, with many more attempts, match what my SO sees, which is police activity there at least once a month. I think you are right about the activity being slightly down, but there was a completed suicide there not too long ago, so it’s not a complete deterrent.
In any case - the number of completed plus attempted suicides is still quite high for a tall structure, putting us ahead of all other US bridges besides the Golden Gate. By comparison, the Ship Canal Bridge averages about one attempt a year (I’ll have to dig up where I got that statistic, but I’ve seen it floating round for a while). And the Space Needle has had none, I think, since it put up barriers a number of years ago.
Once the Aurora Bridge barrier goes up, the numbers are widely expected to drop as well. And if it mirrors the other completed barrier projects around the world, those decreases should be permanent, and hold for the entire region and not just for the bridge. I only wish other projects had such a high likelihood of success.
24 Anon // Nov 19, 2010 at 11:17 am
This is a classic example of how some folks would rather just rely on their opinions rather than facts. Yes. Forget all the articles and evidence that nprfool presents. I mean, why care about reality when you can just make up your own reality. Thank you nprfool for presenting the facts. It makes me tremendously sad to see folks be so vocal but refuse to do the research and work that would allow them to be vocal AND informed. (FYI. I think that this same issue also affects folks in talking about the Viaduct.)
25 Tiktok // Nov 19, 2010 at 1:16 pm
As long as we can get the number of fatalities down to an acceptable level, I’m all for it.
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