13.8.08

We need more votes


Even though the votes are starting to go in the right direction, we need still more votes in favor of a barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge.

The deadline for voting is August 25 - coming up very soon.

It's the number one suicide magnet in the world with a total of 1,300 deaths so far (officially) but most likely closer to 2,00 deaths. On average, 20 - 40 people jump from that bridge annually and 98% do not survive. And every year, the police who patrol the bridge prevent 60 - 80 people from jumping. The original design for the bridge included a suicide barrier but, for some reason, it wasn't built. The first death occurred within days of the bridge's opening. There are been several studies about the feasibility of a suicide barrier and, everytime this came to a vote, the barrier was voted down.

Here is the link to viewing the various proposed alternatives for a barrier:

https://www.commentmgr.com/projects/1181/docs/Alts-withLabels.pdf
This is a PDF file and it takes a while to load. Please be patient.

Here is where you get to vote and comment:

Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Deterrent Barrier

I've noticed that in the last few days these links have been very slow to load. Again, please be patient.

If you have a few more minutes, please consider signing the petition by the Whitmer family. They, too, lost a child:
Raise the Rails - Save a Life - The Petition Site
It has signatures from all over the world, some pretty exotic places.

And, please, consider forwarding this post and/or the links to as many of your friends as you can. And if those friends have the usual Bay Area response: Let 'em jump! or Those who want to kill themselves will do it anyway! - point them to this article:

The Urge to End It - Understanding Suicide - NYTimes.com
It gives three compelling examples that suicides often are impulsive and, yes, they can be stopped when the easy means are taken away.

Thank you!

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