Suicide barriers on the Golden Gate Bridge: Will they save lives?
Unique aspects of the bridge
The World High Dive Federation recommends keeping dives to less than 20 meters (65.5 feet), with a few exceptions.16 The rail of the Golden Gate Bridge stands 67 meters (220 feet) above the water, and assuming minimal wind resistance, a falling person traverses that distance in about 3.7 seconds and lands with an impact of 130 km/hour (81 miles per hour).17 Only about 1%-2% of those jumping from the Golden Gate survive that fall.18
A 99% likelihood of death sounds pretty lethal; however, death by jumping from the Golden Gate inherently takes place in a public space, with the opportunity for interventions by other people. A more realistic calculation of the lethality would start the instant that someone initiates a sequence of behaviors leading to the intended death. By that criteria, measuring the lethality of the Golden Gate would begin when an individual enters a vehicle or sets off on foot with the plan of going over the railing.
Unless our surveillance-oriented society makes substantially greater advances (which I oppose), we will remain unable to assess suicide lethality by starting at the moment of inception. However, we do have data showing what happens once someone with suicidal intentions walks onto the bridge.
,Between 2000 and 2018, observers noted 2,546 people on the Golden Gate who appeared to be considering a suicide attempt, the San Francisco Chronicle has reported. Five hundred sixty-four confirmed suicides occurred. In an additional 71 cases, suicide is presumed but bodies were not recovered. In the 1,911 remaining instances, mental health interventions were made, with individuals taken to local hospitals and psychiatric wards, and released when no longer overtly suicidal. Interventions successfully diverted 75% (1,911/2,546) of those intending to end their own lives, which suggests that the current lethality of the Golden Gate as a means of suicide is only 25%. Even in the bridge’s first half-century, without constant camera monitoring, and a cadre of volunteers and professionals scanning for those attempting suicide, the lethality rate approached about 50%.19
We face even more difficulties measuring accessibility than in determining lethality. The Golden Gate appears to be accessible to almost anyone – drivers have to pay a toll only when traveling from the north, and then only after they have traversed the span. Pedestrians retain unfettered admittance to the east sidewalk (facing San Francisco city and bay) throughout daylight hours. But any determination of accessibility must include how quickly and easily one can make use of an opportunity.
Both entrances to the Golden Gate are embedded in the Golden Gate National Recreational Area, part of the National Park system. The south entrance to the bridge arises from The Presidio, a former military installation that housed about 4,000 people.20 Even fewer people live in the parklands at the north end of the bridge. The Presidio extends far enough so that the closest San Francisco neighborhoods outside of the park are a full 2.2 km (1.36 miles) from the bridge railing. A brisk walk would still require a minimum of about 20 minutes to get to the bridge; it is difficult to arrive at the bridge without a trek.
Researchers define impulsivity, like accessibility, inconsistently – and often imprecisely. Impulsivity, which clearly exists on a spectrum, connotes overvaluing of immediate feelings and thoughts at the expense of longer term goals and aspirations. Some suicide research appears to define impulsivity as the antithesis of planned behavior;21,22 others define it pragmatically as behaviors executed within 5 minutes of a decision,23 and still others contend that “suicidal behavior is rarely if ever impulsive.”24 Furthermore, when we assess impulsivity, we must acknowledge a fundamental difference between “impulsive” shootings and poisonings that are accomplished at home and within seconds or minutes, from “impulsive” Golden Gate Bridge suicide attempts, which require substantial travel and time commitments, and inherently involve the potential for others to intervene.
Those arguing that the bridge suicide barrier will save lives often bring up two additional sets of numbers to back up their assertions. They provide evidence that most of those people who were stopped in their attempts at suicide at the Golden Gate do not go on to commit suicide elsewhere, and that many of those who survived their attempts express regret at having tried to kill themselves. Specifically, 94% of those who were prevented from jumping from the Golden Gate had not committed suicide after a median follow-up of 26 years, according to a follow-up study published a few years ago. On the other hand, those who have made a serious suicide attempt have a substantially increased risk, relative to the general population, of dying from a later attempt,25,26 and the strongest predictor for death by suicide is having made a previous, serious suicide attempt.27
While all of these studies provide important and interesting information regarding suicide, none directly address the question of whether individuals will substitute attempts by other methods if the Golden Gate Bridge were no longer available. Many discussions blur the distinction between how individuals behave after a thwarted Golden Gate suicide attempt and how other people might act if we secured the bridge from any potential future suicide attempts. I hope that the following analogy makes this distinction clearer without trivializing: Imagine that we know that everyone who was interrupted while eating their dinner in a particular restaurant never went back and ate out anywhere, ever again. We could not conclude from this that another individual, who learned that the intended restaurant was indefinitely closed, would never dine out again. Once effective suicide barriers exist on the Golden Gate, this will likely become widely known, thereby greatly reducing the likelihood that any individuals will consider the possibility of jumping from the bridge. But it seems very unlikely that this would vanquish all suicidal impulses from the northern California population.
