New York – Tyler Clementi’s intentions were clear: He was going to jump off the George Washington Bridge. The Rutgers University student’s body was found in the waters underneath it last week.
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He wasn’t the first to pick a high-profile place for suicide. Chef Joseph Cerniglia jumped from the bridge in the past two weeks. In March, Yale University student Cameron Dabaghi jumped from the Empire State Building’s 86th-floor observation deck.
Those who choose to end their lives in public fashion often pick landmarks from the George Washington Bridge overlooking Manhattan to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Authorities are looking at how to prevent the public deaths with everything from concrete barriers, suicide hot line phones or safety nets hanging from bridges.
A Safety Net Would Be A Great Idea, They Will Stay Stuck There Like Big Fools
If you jump in to the water why do you die?
You die because of the distance in the fall. An average bridge is 200-300 feet off the ground. When you fall gravity your body weight and that distance creates a tremendous impact force against the water. Jumping into water at that height is the same as jumping onto concrete from a 6 story building. Your legs and ribs break on impact. If you don’t go into shock at that point you will watch your body drown but you won’t be able to swim with broken bones. Every bridge should have safety net. San Fransisco bridge has less suicide attempts now.
Answer to #2 - I don’t know if your question was genuine or not; however, kindly be advised that at a great height, jumping into water, is similar to jumping onto concrete. Regarding the GW Bridge, the pedestrian path should be closed to prevent jumpers. When the Verrazano Narrows Bridge opened in 1964, its designers purposely did not erect a pedestrian path to prevent suicides. There is no reason for pedestrians to walk across the GW Bridge, when there is excellent bus service, which goes across that span.
Most people get knocked out from the speed of the fall, and if your impact with the water is not a perfect dive the impact would result in broken limbs and internal bleeding. A small percentage, do survive.
legally, differnces exists in the laws of ny or nj…so it may dapend on where you land.
When I was at university in UK a Jewish friend of mine took a running jump through a plate-glass window of a student housing high-rise tower. I was home for Shabbos & I came back to the news. It was nearly 40 years ago & I’ll never forget that tragedy, the first of many untimely & tragic deaths of young people (in my experience.)
Safety nets are a great idea. Why haven’t they been placed till now? Oh, I forgot, it’s too expensive. So what’s a few deaths? Hey, the State doesn’t even pay for the funerals.
We are a sad society.
There is no point to putting up nets. If someone intends to kill himself, blocking a single modality will not work. He can jump off a roof, through a window, overdose walk in front of a truck Etc.
Once again, ProminAnt Lawyer dazzles us with his marvellous scholarship and his lapidary prose.
It’s a shame that this legal luminary has – once again – managed to make no less than three mistakes in 17 words.
#4
There is no reason for pedestrians to walk across the GW Bridge, when there is excellent bus service, which goes across that span.
lets see, exerciser, beautiful view, get across to the other side, cyclist use it to go to nyack. Just name a few
they shud have made all the pedestrian walkways the same way they made it on the brooklyn bride,there has never been an attempted sucide on it since theres no place at all 4 them 2 jump!
#4
When the Verrazano Narrows Bridge opened in 1964, its designers purposely did not erect a pedestrian path to prevent suicides.
yes and no, and why no trains?
That maybe was what they said, however since it was build under Robert Moses,
all that he built had no access only by car. Simply he wanted only the better people to get to places and not the poor. So no train and no bike path and or walkways on all his projects.
let him jump! why should he suffer?