Every 4 days someone attempts suicide by jumping off this bridge.
Blogger samsebeskazal says: “I didn’t know, but it turns out that every four days someone attempts suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. This makes it the most popular place to settle accounts with life in New York.
65 meters to the water and the absence of a high barrier create the illusion that you can easily solve all your problems with just one jump. True, according to forensic experts, most first break their bones, hitting the water, and then drown, reflexively fighting for their lives, so this option of parting with problems can hardly be called easy and painless.
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Statistics report that last year there were 76 suicide attempts on the bridge, 18 of which were completed. Unfortunately, these numbers are increasing from year to year. Most suicides can be dissuaded from jumping, but the number of attempts is so high that saving lives has become a routine for police officers working on the bridge.
Last spring, two men jumped off a bridge less than a minute apart. One jumped from the bottom, and the second from the top tier. They did not know each other, but it so happened that they parted ways in the same place and almost at the same time.
In the entire history of only four people were able to survive after the jump. One girl, having jumped from the bridge, broke half of her bones, but remained alive. She was dragged ashore and taken to the hospital, where she spent the next year. When she was finally discharged, the first thing she did was get into the car, drive to the bridge, and jump again. This time already "successfully".
In 2009, a 29-year-old Naval Academy cadet and water polo player jumped off a bridge but sustained no serious injuries other than a couple of bruises and swam to shore on his own. More recently, a 25-year-old New Jersey resident jumped off the bridge and also survived, escaping with only a broken leg. It was possible to save her thanks to a diver who at that moment was working under the bridge, where he was looking for the body of the previous jumper.
Boat with divers at the eastern pillar of the bridge.
They write that the problem with suicides can be solved only by building a high fence along the entire bridge. The cost of such a fence is estimated at about $40 million, and it will be ready only in 2022. Up to this point, they only promise to increase the number of patrols and install more cameras. I don’t know what they were going to increase there, but I never saw a single cop on the bridge.
Despite all the problems and stresses associated with living in a big city, the suicide rate in New York is quite low: only 7 per 100,000 people. For comparison: the national level is twice as high - 13 suicides per 100,000 people. The most dangerous state in this regard is Montana. There, 20 out of 100 thousand of its inhabitants part with their lives.