Friday, October 06, 2006
City hopes to dissuade suicidal jumpers - Seattle P-I
Crisis information signs, call boxes will be installed along Aurora Bridge
About four times a year, they see it when they pull in to work -- a portion of the parking lot closed, an area yellow-taped. Emergency trucks idle, lights flashing. Sometimes, a tarp covers a small mound. The paramedics' lack of haste says volumes.
...
For Person and other people who live and work under the Aurora and the Interstate 5 Ship Canal bridges, theirs is a deeply personal and instantaneously detached view of suicide. By virtue of geography, they bear witness to the landing zone of strangers who jump.
This year, seven people have stepped off the Aurora Bridge and into memory. The most recent: A 20-year-old man wearing a gray sweat shirt, maroon sweat pants and black shoes climbed one way over the 4-foot-high rail in September. His body went unidentified for more than a week, prompting the King County Medical Examiner's Office to make a rare public plea for information. He left no note.
Some bodies hit the water. Many don't, landing in the Adobe parking lot or in neighborhoods. A crew team witnessed a jump just 50 feet away. A falling body struck an SUV earlier this year while the driver was inside, heading home from work. The body struck the passenger side, above the door. The driver wasn't hurt.
"But someone might be," Person said. "If (the body) had hit the roof of his car, he might not be walking around today."
Parking lots have been painted to remove stains and memorials. In the Adobe lot, workers partially blacked out a memorial to a 15-year girl who jumped in May. It still faintly reads: "We (heart) U."
One man moved his small business away from inside a houseboat under the bridge after seeing the aftermath of one jumper too many.
"You don't want to deal with it anymore," said the man, who like some neighborhood residents feels conflicted between sympathy and anger and asked to not be identified. "We were concerned -- for our safety, too. I don't want to sound unsympathetic, but it gets to you."
...
[Assistant Police Chief Nicholas] Metz, a former hostage negotiator who has talked two jumpers down from the Space Needle, wondered if the issue moved to the forefront because there are more witnesses now than ever before.
Added one longtime under-Aurora dweller: "They are not lethal before they jump. Then they are, after, to themselves and to us. I'm not sure they realize that."
...
She told the story of a co-worker who saw something one morning in the parking lot. He moved toward it, thinking first it was junk, then a pile of carpet, then when he got closer, a dog.
Only when he walked right up did he see a face.
Crisis information signs, call boxes will be installed along Aurora Bridge
About four times a year, they see it when they pull in to work -- a portion of the parking lot closed, an area yellow-taped. Emergency trucks idle, lights flashing. Sometimes, a tarp covers a small mound. The paramedics' lack of haste says volumes.
...
For Person and other people who live and work under the Aurora and the Interstate 5 Ship Canal bridges, theirs is a deeply personal and instantaneously detached view of suicide. By virtue of geography, they bear witness to the landing zone of strangers who jump.
This year, seven people have stepped off the Aurora Bridge and into memory. The most recent: A 20-year-old man wearing a gray sweat shirt, maroon sweat pants and black shoes climbed one way over the 4-foot-high rail in September. His body went unidentified for more than a week, prompting the King County Medical Examiner's Office to make a rare public plea for information. He left no note.
Some bodies hit the water. Many don't, landing in the Adobe parking lot or in neighborhoods. A crew team witnessed a jump just 50 feet away. A falling body struck an SUV earlier this year while the driver was inside, heading home from work. The body struck the passenger side, above the door. The driver wasn't hurt.
"But someone might be," Person said. "If (the body) had hit the roof of his car, he might not be walking around today."
Parking lots have been painted to remove stains and memorials. In the Adobe lot, workers partially blacked out a memorial to a 15-year girl who jumped in May. It still faintly reads: "We (heart) U."
One man moved his small business away from inside a houseboat under the bridge after seeing the aftermath of one jumper too many.
"You don't want to deal with it anymore," said the man, who like some neighborhood residents feels conflicted between sympathy and anger and asked to not be identified. "We were concerned -- for our safety, too. I don't want to sound unsympathetic, but it gets to you."
...
[Assistant Police Chief Nicholas] Metz, a former hostage negotiator who has talked two jumpers down from the Space Needle, wondered if the issue moved to the forefront because there are more witnesses now than ever before.
Added one longtime under-Aurora dweller: "They are not lethal before they jump. Then they are, after, to themselves and to us. I'm not sure they realize that."
...
She told the story of a co-worker who saw something one morning in the parking lot. He moved toward it, thinking first it was junk, then a pile of carpet, then when he got closer, a dog.
Only when he walked right up did he see a face.
Labels: suicide
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