A new petition

Dayna Whitmer of the Bridge Rail Foundation started another petition to be submitted to legislators soon. So far, not very many signatures but a couple of pretty important ones: one is a man from New Zealand who is a co-designer of the suicide barrier on the Grafton Bridge (which had a barrier that was removed, at which time suicides increased fivefold. A new barrier was constructed very quickly after that.), the other is Richard Seiden whose study we always quote when we explain to people who say, "If you put up a barrier, they'll just go somewhere else to take their lives." just how wrong they are. He identified 515 people who had been prevented from jumping and found that only 6% went on to take their lives and on 2 people went back to the bridge.
So, please add your signature to the petition.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/suicide-barrier-funding-eligiblity-ii

Thank you!

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!

Raise the Rail - Save a Life

The link to this site was buried in one of my previous posts. It was put up by the Whitmer family who lost their youngest son Matthew in November 2007. He is believed to have jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge, but his body has never been found. That is not unusual, the tide under the bridge is very strong.
This petition will be passed on to the Golden Gate Bridge Authority. There still is too much opposition.
Please consider signing the petition. Thank you!