COST:
Cost-effectiveness of Installing Barriers at Bridge and Cliff Sites for Suicide Prevention in Australia (April 2022)
- This economic evaluation found that barriers installed at multiple bridge sites across Australia were a cost-saving intervention with a return of US $2.40 for every US $1 invested over 10 years.
- These results suggest that barriers are a cost-effective measure associated with reduced rates of suicide at bridge sites; their installation is a warranted strategy for suicide prevention.
- https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2790701
Opinion| Suicide barriers are more than worth the cost (Sep 2022)
- Amortized, the $229,000 cost of this prevention effort equates to less than $2,000 per life saved, a cost that is declining daily. This compares with the average cost to society of a suicide at $1.33 million. To those who argue that thwarting access to a lethal jump site is a waste of money, D.C.’s experiment resoundingly counter-argues with data, “Not true.”
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/23/suicide-barriers-are-more-than-worth-cost/
Analysis of the Cost Effectiveness of a Suicide Barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge (Dec 2012)
- Assuming that unsuccessful suicides eventually committed suicide at previously reported (12–13%) rates, approximately 286 lives would be saved over a 20-year period at an average cost/life of approximately $180,419 i.e., roughly 6% of US Department of Transportation minimal VSL estimate ($3.2 million).
- Conclusions: Cost-benefit analysis suggests that a suicide barrier on the GGB would result in a highly cost-effective reduction in suicide mortality in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3643780/
Suicide Bridges National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Position White Paper (2017)
- On June 27, 2014, the Golden Gate Bridge District’s Board unanimously approved $76 million to fund the implementation of a 20-foot wide steel net 20 feet below the deck surface and across both sides of the entire 1.7 mile span. Their decision to install a net was based on the experience of Bern and the Munsterplaatform, which was both 100% effective in preventing suicides as well as deterring jumpers…falling into the net would likely cause serious but non-fatal injury; “People who are tired of life want to kill themselves but not injure themselves” (Stephens, 2014).
- COST PER SQU FT: $8,981
- Regarding cost, Paul Muller of the Bridge Rail Foundation noted that a lot more money is invested in highway and bridge safety improvement
- https://988lifeline.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Suicide-Bridges-National-Suicide-Prevention-Lifeline-Position-2017-FINAL.pdf
DESIGN:
Comparing Different Suicide Prevention Measures at Bridges and Buildings: Lessons We Have Learned from a National Survey in Switzerland (Jan 6, 2017)
- Barriers and safety nets were both effective, with mean suicide reduction of 68.7% (barriers) and 77.1% (safety nets), respectively. Measures that do not secure the whole hotspot and still allow jumps of 15 meters or more were less effective. Further, the analyses revealed that barriers of at least 2.3 m in height and safety-nets fixed significantly below pedestrian level deterred suicidal jumps. Secured bridgeheads and inbound angle barriers seemed to enhance the effectiveness of the measure. Findings can help to plan and improve the effectiveness of future suicide prevention measures on high structures.
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5218568/
In Our Opinion: Barriers to prevent bridge suicides worth considering (Aug 3, 2021)
- Some people may have assumed that nets wouldn’t be allowed on the bridge because it is historic — and the most commonly photographed landmark in the Puget Sound region — but a Department of Transportation official said that’s not the case. After all, many bridges across the nation with barriers are also historic, including the Golden Gate Bridge.
- If one of the Department of Transportation’s top priorities is safety, then barriers at the bridge are overdue.
- https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/opinion/in-our-opinion-barriers-to-prevent-bridge-suicides-worth-considering/
GGB Net Video: https://youtu.be/Nnx5gHydyXk
- Net is made out of stainless steel and with thin cord diameter, but due to surface area, it is effective; minimizes wind disruption.
GGB Net Video: https://vimeo.com/234428156
- Steel struts (8 in x 8 inch) hold net up, located 20 feet below bridge’s sidewalk.
- Fence put up in interim to protect workers building net.
SUICIDE PREVENTION BARRIERS SAVE LIVES AND THOSE LIVES ARE WORTH SAVING:
Where are they now? A follow-up study of suicide attempters from the Golden Gate Bridge
- The 1978 Seiden study at the Golden Gate Bridge showed that 90 percent of those stopped from jumping did not later die by suicide or other violent means. A Harvard School of Public Health article reviewing numerous studies showed more broadly that “Nine out of ten people who attempt suicide and survive will not go on to die by suicide at a later date.”
- https://www.goldengate.org/district/district-projects/suicide-deterrent-net/how-the-net-works/
Suicide Bridges National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Position White Paper (2017)
- On behalf of its Steering Committee in 2008, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline released a white paper definitively stating that bridge barriers were the optimal means for preventing suicides from bridges
- Although the essential recommendation supporting bridge barriers has not changed, this paper is intended to update its original content to assist contemporary decision-makers, in light of these more recent developments.
- Bridge barriers effectively reduce suicides in the regions where they are installed (Reisch & Michel, 2005). Similarly, a study of 515 persons who were restrained from leaping off the Golden Gate Bridge over a period of 40 years found that nearly 94% were still alive at the time of the investigation or had died from natural causes (Seiden, 1978). In general, research has shown that persons thwarted in utilizing a preferred method of suicide do not typically seek other approaches to kill him/her self (Daigle, 2005).
- Based on the current state of the research, physical barriers remain the most effective means of preventing suicides on bridges. Further, there is evidence that “method substitution” for barriers on bridges is less significant than its overall impact on suicide prevention at both the bridge site and in the surrounding communities.
- https://988lifeline.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Suicide-Bridges-National-Suicide-Prevention-Lifeline-Position-2017-FINAL.pdf
Harvard Public Health Suicide Resources
- Approximately 7% (range: 5-11%) of attempters eventually died by suicide, approximately 23% reattempted nonfatally, and 70% had no further attempts.
- Nine out of ten people who attempt suicide and survive will not go on to die by suicide at a later date.
- https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/means-matter/survival/
In Our Opinion: Barriers to prevent bridge suicides worth considering (Aug 3, 2021)
- Studies have shown that not only do the barriers prevent suicides at the bridges but that most of the people who are deterred do not commit suicide in other ways.
- Researchers found that bridge barriers lower overall suicide numbers in a region and that people thwarted in attempts to jump from bridges usually do not try to commit suicide again.
- https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/opinion/in-our-opinion-barriers-to-prevent-bridge-suicides-worth-considering/
Suicide Prevention Study Barriers Like The One Planned On San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge Reduce Suicides (Sep 2015)
- Researchers looked at a range of studies on the relative effectiveness of different forms of suicide intervention, including restricting access (i.e. installing safety barriers and nets), encouraging help-seeking (i.e. providing crisis hotlines and signs), and increasing the likelihood of third party intervention (i.e. training bridge staff to monitor for suicide attempts). Out of all three, suicide barriers were the most effective.
- https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/09/suicide-prevention-study-barriers-like-the-one-planned-on-san-francisco-s-golden-gate-bridge-reduce-suicides.html
Jumpers (Oct 2003)
- “So I jumped.” But after he crossed the chord, he recalls, “My first thought was What the hell did I just do? I don’t want to die.”
- “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.”
- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/13/jumpers