No one seems to know where the money might come from. A year ago, Caltrans held a community meeting where officials pointed to a “ folding wave barrier” as the best option and said it would cost between $20 million and $25 million, said Strickland, the suicide prevention advocate. It’s not clear how much the full Coronado bridge barrier project will cost or what it will look like. “From feasibility study to construction completion, is expected to be between five and 10 years.” “If we receive regulatory approvals and have funding, we can proceed to design and construction,” Caltrans spokesman Cartagena said. The next step is a $5 million environmental impact review process that’s expected to last at least into 2022. Their ages ranged from 23 to 62.Ĭaltrans has finished a $285,000 study that determined that a suicide-prevention barrier is feasible for the bridge. You really get a disfiguring, traumatic and dramatic death.”įor 2019, specific information is only available about 11 suicide victims who died during the first half of the year. “It’s not a swan song, diving into heaven. Jim Dunford, medical director of the city of San Diego, told VOSD in 2008. “There’s nothing at all glamorous about jumping off a bridge,” Dr. Most of those who jump from the bridge die from the impact, according to the medical examiner’s office, but some survive the fall and go on to drown. ‘Folding Wave Barrier’ Is Top Option for Now In 2012, the bridge reached a grim milestone: a record high of 19 suicides. From 2000-2010, the annual number of deaths ranged from three to 12.įor reasons that aren’t clear, bridge suicides became much more common as the Great Recession began to lift. Information about bridge suicides this year isn’t available.Īround 400 people have jumped to their deaths from the Coronado bridge since it opened in 1969. In recent years, the annual number of bridge suicides has ranged from 13 to 19 2018’s total was 17. Fifteen people jumped to their deaths from the bridge in 2019, all but three of them after the spikes were installed, according to the county medical examiner’s office. But it’s clear that they aren’t reducing the normal level of suicides.Ĭaltrans finished installing the sharp steel spikes on the railings of the bridge in March 2019, at a cost of $420,000. ![]() There’s no way to know whether the spikes have deterred people contemplating jumping from the bridge – or how many. ![]() First responders have stated that they are largely successful at deterring individuals from suicide when they are able to intervene.” Annual Number of Suicides Remains Steady “That leaves standing on the bridge deck – and not atop the railing – as an option, possibly providing additional time for intervention. “They make it more difficult for a person to sit, stand and climb over or onto the railing,” he said. On the Coronado bridge, they’re intended to be a “temporary deterrent” that give police more time to intervene when people are suicidal, said Caltrans spokesman Edward Cartagena. The spikes are the same type of “bird spikes” that are used under the eaves of Caltrans bridges to keep birds from roosting. In North America, only San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge seems to have a higher suicide death toll. The state – which manages the bridge – isn’t expected to build a barrier for five to 10 years, said a Caltrans spokesman. There are no plans for any immediate fixes to prevent suicides from the bridge. “Fifteen deaths in 2019 tells us that the spikes are only keeping the traffic moving because people are jumping quickly instead of sitting on the edge – impossible because of the spikes – and thinking about it before they jump. “I was hoping the spikes would make bridge suicides stop, or at least lower the number of deaths,” said former firefighter Wayne Strickland, a leader of efforts to prevent suicides from the bridge. Since 2012, the number of bridge suicides has ranged from 12 to 19 a year. But statistics suggest the spikes haven’t slowed the pace of the bridge’s death toll.įifteen people jumped from the bridge to their deaths in 2019, according to the county medical examiner’s office, almost all after the spikes were installed. ![]() Just over a year ago, officials installed “bird spikes” on the rails of the San Diego-Coronado Bridge and hoped they’d serve as a stop-gap measure to prevent suicides. The Coronado Bridge / Image via Shutterstock One Year in, ‘Bird Spikes’ Haven't Stopped Coronado Bridge Suicides | Voice of San Diego Close
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