Number of George Washigton Bridge suicides on the rise, two attempts were stopped Thursday

Newark Star Ledger ^ | 6-15-2012 | Richard Khavkine

[oldernittany]

So far this year, nine people have jumped to their deaths from the 212-foot high span into the Hudson River, nearly twice as many as the five people who killed themselves last year.....

...it’s difficult to assign a blanket cause to apparent suicide clusters such as this one, people who jump off towering structures tend to be more psychiatrically disturbed and more intent on killing themselves.

[oldernittany]

Wonder if Obama's summer of recovery has anything to do with this despair.

[wastedyears]

That’s a racist answer. Back to the reeducation camp with you.

/sarc

[tsowellfan]

I hope they weren’t illegals upset that the Dream Act failed in Congress.

Nothing worse than to commit suicide with an unscratched million dollar ticket in your back pocket.

[Lancey Howard]

Note to self: Be sure to use the Tappan Zee on the way home tomorrow.

[Ken H]

...people who jump off towering structures tend to be more psychiatrically disturbed and more intent on killing themselves.

(slaps forehead) Why, of course! It's obvious once it's pointed out.

[zeestephen]

Re: “...people who jump off towering structures tend to be more psychiatrically disturbed and more intent on killing themselves.”

I don't recall hearing this testimony after that young gay student from New Jersey jumped off the GWBridge, and his roommate was charged with a hate crime.

[umgud]

Sad.

Such a permanent solution to such a temporary problem.

[I see my hands]

I read recently -on the internet- that nearly all jumpers who survive report that immediately after jumping they regret the action and are shocked at how fast they are falling.

A couple of thoughts on suicide.. When you are that depressed it is the wrong time to be making life and death decisions. Plus if life is handing you such disappointment then you should be afraid that death will provide no more peace than your other failed attempts at happiness.

[AAABEST]

And here I was thinking that people who jump off bridges are psychiatricallly sound with no intent whatsoever on killing themselves.

[AmericanInTokyo]

We are the ones we have been waiting for. “Hope and Change.” Uh HUH! Yeah! Mmmm Mmmmm HMMMMM!!

[AmericanInTokyo]

That is the irony, indeed. That sometimes to escape unbearable physical pain or emotional anguish over something or somethings, people look for an “escape” and yet it is like running smack into a room where they will have it 100x worse and they were best to stay in the room they had and looked for a way to cope. People will often say “well at least now he is at peace” after something like that. I think there is a potent counterargument to that in many great religious texts, including that of commentaries in Christianity.

[BigCinBigD]

” In a little while from now
If I’m not feeling any less sour
I promise myself to treat myself
And visit a nearby tower
And climbing to the top
Will throw myself off
In an effort to
Make it clear to whoever
Wants to know what it’s like
When you’re shattered...”

[Brad from Tennessee]

In the late 1970’s California psychologist Dr. David Rosen interviewed seven people who had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge and survived. There stories were amazing:

“. . . all of them had spiritual experiences during or straight after their jumps. They experienced feelings of intense peace and calm, an awareness of a ‘higher power’ and a connection to other human beings or the universe as a whole. And this state never faded. Although, in some cases it was several years since their jump, they had all retained this sense of meaning and well-being. In other words, they had undergone a permanent spiritual transformation. Most jumpers black out on hitting the water, but two of Rosen’s interviewees remained conscious, and had profound spiritual experiences right at that moment. . .”

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/out-the-darkness/201110/the-jumpers-what-happens-after-person-jumps-the-golden-gate-bridge-surv

[who knows what evil?]

As long as they don’t land on some innocent boater; who cares?

[real saxophonist]

Many years ago, I was in the back seat of a car that narrowly avoided a head-on collision. I experienced that ‘intense peace and calm’. But, that never alleviated the suicidal feelings since. Such is the difficulty with mental illness.

[Steely Tom]

He counted to ten again, then vaulted over. “I still see my hands coming off the railing,” he said. As he crossed the chord in flight, Baldwin recalls, “I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable—except for having just jumped.”

Source.

[Happy Rain]

Guess some people just can’t live without their Big Gulps.

[ObamaMustGo2012]

I was “fortunate” enough to have to cross the GWB one night last week. From the time I hit the toll booth to the time I got across it was over 90 minutes.

My guess is that it’s the construction workers who are jumping.

[DH]

I just love these stories about “bridge jumpers” who try to kill themselves due to namely financial problems.

If they survive, they are placed into our medical establishment’s money making machines called hospitals and when all “fixed up” released on the streets once again.

Only problem is that their original financial problems are now small due to the HUGE financial burden they have incurred by the medical industry.

Now, find a physiologist to fix that...and be sure to charge the old “bridge diver” for that too.

[Condor51]

So far this year, nine people have jumped to their deaths from the 212-foot high span (George 'Washington' Bridge) into the Hudson River, nearly twice as many as the five people who killed themselves last year, said Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Since 2000, suicides off the bridge have averaged about six a year, although 10 jumped to their deaths in 2004 and 13 in 2010, according to the Port Authority.

Gee whiz now what could be driving these people of NYC to total madness? What exactly has happened in NYC in that time span?

Hmmm... this is a toughie, as it can't be Obama's fault, they love him there. So what else could it be??? WAIT! Could it be because of...??? Yeah ... it could... it's very possible!
The midget dictator, Der Führer, Mikey 'ADOLPH' Bloomberg!!!

First Führer Bloomberg went after Trans Fats and no one spoke up. Then Der Führer Bloomie went after Smokers, and no one spoke up. But now, it's Big Sodas Der verrückte Führer wants to ban - and then his hand picked Food Gestapo decided (on their own I'm sure) to go after anything with sugar in it, and that was it. Now there's nobody left to speak up and the people are going insane.

So they just can't take it anymore and are opting to kill themselves by nose-diving off NYC's Bridges. Really, it's too bad they just couldn't get a gun and use a single bullet to their temple. That'd save the city a lot of search and cleanup money and alleviate the track jams on the bridges caused by the High Dive Suicides.

Bang up job you're doing Bloomie Adolph. So what's next on your 'For Their Own Good' Ban List, huh asshat.
White Bread? Butter? Whole Milk? Coffee?

[Condor51]

OOPS TYPO - Edit Alert in my previous post.

'Track' should be 'Traffic' (sometimes I edit my post too much.

[albie]

These people are always cloggin up traffic. Let ‘em jump.

[presently no screen name]

One person was stopped last week from jumping off the Zee by two drivers who pulled over to intervene and one was an off duty cop.

[presently no screen name]

that immediately after jumping they regret the action

Thanks - I wondered about that. I imagined they were so very despondent that they couldn't think rationally. Seems once they jump, reality sets in.

I think a 'Jumpers Anonymous' Group is in order to help those considering it or is it a split decision that act on or contemplate on it for awhile.

[presently no screen name]

I was thinking that people who jump off bridges are psychiatricallly sound with no intent whatsoever on killing themselves.

Yeah, like they are just the adventurous type. They aren't near any mountains to climb, so a bridge will do.

[Haiku Guy]

Tyler Clementi jumped off the GWB in the famous Rutgers Web-Cam case. Because it became a political case, Mr. Clementi was treated very favorably in the press, and it became very fashionable to bemoan the circumstances of his death. He became a much more sympathetic and famous figure in death than he ever was in life.

This sort of thing is like catnip to certain people who are craving attention and sympathy, who simply cannot save the drama for their momma, and have to play out their problems on a public stage.

The sad thing is that each new bridge jumper is completely anonymous. Everybody is back to not caring again, because there is no political hook to be attached to these new cases. All they do is move the clicker one more notch, from “8” to “9” on the GWB 2012 Jumper Counter.

[4yearlurker]

Hah! I translated that sentence as:” So the Obama economy has nothing to do with the suicides.”

[Texas Eagle]

Hope ‘n’ Change yessirree.

[ETL]

If this keeps up, there’ll soon be a waiting list to jump.

[bkepley]

<>I read recently -on the internet- that nearly all jumpers who survive report that immediately after jumping they regret the action and are shocked at how fast they are falling.

There is an outstanding documentary on people jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. One of the ones who survived and was obsessed with suicide for years said that as soon as he left the bridge he had an overpowering sense of having made a terrible mistake.

[donna]

I wonder what the people have in common.

Perhaps they are all taking Ritalin.

[hinckley buzzard]

Wonder if Obama's summer of recovery has anything to do with this despair

It might. Suicides went up during the depths of the Great Depression, and not just the couple of stockbrokers who jumped onto Wall street when the market crashed.

There were proud working Americans back then who said "I'd rather kill myself than go to the poor house"-- and meant it.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Number of George Washington Bridge suicides on the rise.

OK. Seriously. Somebody has to stop these George Washington Bridges from leaping to their death. I didn't know that George Washington bridges ever contemplated suicide, but the title say as much. Maybe we could counsel the bridges of put them on anti-depressants. Poor little George Washington bridges, minding their own business, all alone, lonely and then POW!, leaping to their watery graves.

I blame bullying. Those Holland Tunnel bullies are at it again.

[aposiopetic]

It's the George W. bridge.

Bush's fault.

[tet68]

That’s the great thing about gassing yourself
in your car. By the time you change your mind
it’s too late and you can’t get your hand to
open the door.
Got to be feeling pretty final about then.

[UCANSEE2]

That’s the great thing about gassing yourself in your car.

I don't know about that. I've been sitting in my Chevy Volt for two weeks, and I can still open the door. Maybe I need to get out and seal the garage door a little better.

[RipSawyer]

“And here I was thinking that people who jump off bridges are psychiatricallly sound with no intent whatsoever on killing themselves.”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I was thinking they didn’t finish the sentence, people who jump off bridges are obviously more intent on suicide than people who use uncertain methods. When you jump off a bridge you are not hoping that someone will see it as “a plea for help”, you really must want to die when you do that as opposed to someone who swallows a few pills in a place where someone is certain to try to save them. Hitting water from a great height is almost as certain death as hitting concrete from the same height.