HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-26-10 Board of Public Works Meeting AgendaA meeting • the Board • Public Works will be held • Wednesday, May 26, 2010, at
J1:45 p.m. in Common Council Chambers - Third Floor, City Hall, 108 East Green
Street, Ithaca, NewYork.
1. Additions or Deletions t2_Agenda
2. Mayor's Communications
3. Communications and Hearings from Persons before the Boa]
A
41. Response to Public
7. Voting Items
7.1 Buildings, Properties, Refuse, and Transit
7.1 • Recommendation for Acceptance of the Revised Shopping Car]
Ordinance — Resolution
7.2 Highways, Streets, and Sidewalks
7.3 Parking and Traffic
7.4 Creeks, Bridges, and Parks
7.5 Water and Sewer
7.5C Protest of Sewer Repair for 246 Floral Avenue — Resolution —
5 min.
8. Discussion Items
Buildings, :. Refuse,
Highways, a Sidewalks
Parking and Traffic
8.4 Creeks, Bridges, and Parks
i t l Dredging of Barge Canal • Flood Control Channel and BPW
Recommendation t t f Disposal Site — Discussion of
8.4B Safety Fencing on Bridges Discussion i
8 Tlater and Sewer
8.5A Appeal of Water Service Repair Invoice for 525 West Buffalo
Street — Discussion
Please refer to information that was distributed on March 3, 2010.
ti `l Administration .. Communications i a'A Board f`
9. New Business
f ' r a.
J'
If you have a disability that will require special arrangements to be made in order for you to fully
participate in the meeting, please contact the City Clerk at 274 -6570 at least 48 hours before the
meeting.
The Board of Public Works meets on the second, third and fourth Wednesdays of the month at 4:45 p.m. All meetings are
voting meetings, which opens with a public comment period. Meeting agendas are created from prior public input,
Department operating and planning issues, and requests made to the Superintendent. The Board reserves the right to limit
verbal comments to three minutes and to request written comments on lengthy or complex issues. This information maythen
be used to create committee agendas, with the speaker or author invited to attend.
Page 2
Amos..
Attached are Table 14, Decision Matrix from the Site Reconnaissance Report, and Lisa
Nicholas' initial draft of a resolution for the Board's recommendation to Common
Council of an upland disposal site. It would be good to bring the full report with you. In
order to pass the Board's recommendation to Council for a July vote, th-BPW should
vote June 9th and send the recommendation on to the Planning Committee.
Ok MS. IM,
Cornell appeared be the Planning & Economic Development Committee on May 1 9th
request an extension of the period for fencing beyond current agreement of June 4,
2010. The Mayor has asked the representatives to brief the Board on their request
an extension. Some material from the package Cornell provided on May 1 9th is
attached. I
1�,wwm
WJ Gray, P.E.
Superintendent of Public Works
May 21, 2010
Page 3
MA Recommendation for Acceptance of the Revised Shopping Cart Ordinance
— Resolution
WHEREAS, the City of Ithaca's rules and practices regarding shopping carts are in
need • updating; and
WHEREAS, a special committee was formed, including representatives of the
Department of Public Works, the Board of Public Works, and Common Council, to
address this issue; and
T", LEREAS, 'they produced a draft revision of Chapter 268 oil the City Code entitled
Shopping Carts, and
L "ff-TARY w_1 -if", — • --re- -
, TOM =,1117 1__ . -it, &I d"t 4
will be incorporated into the proposed ordinance before it is presented to Common
Council; now therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Board of Public Works hereby approves the revised Chapter 268,
including any modifications approved on this date, and recommends adoption by
Common Council of the same.
Page 4
1 601 or-11 &V; I all I P201001 rZI
WHEREAS, Mr. •. t- requested the review and possible expungement of
the bill, and
WHEREAS, The Board • Public Works has reviewed Mr. •. r- request to
reduce the sewer repair bill, and has considered the severe personal circumstances al
the time of this work, now therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the Board of Public Works hereby agrees to expunge any late fees
accrued on the bill, amounting to $248.95, leaving the total amount due on the invoice
as $3,556.49, which is the amount • the original invoice to rebuild this sewer lateral,
and be it further
RESOLVED, That the Board request that the City Chamberlain work with Mr. Varga
Mendez to set up a payment plan consistent with current City practice. i
Page 5
ti OT a r6'YZ.5=#'-- e LOca Min or a
Sediment Management Facility.
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WHEREAS, on March 31, 2010, at a joint meeting Common Council and the Board of
Public Works, it was decided by mutual agreement that the Board of Public Works
would undertake the task of selecting a preferred site, and that at the completion of this
process, would submit their recommendation for a preferred site to Common Council for
final approv.,a d
WHEREAS, the Board of Public Works has completed an analysis oft e potential sites
which has included review of the Draft Site Reconnaissance Report, site visits to the
former southwest park and of sediment management facility in Montour Falls, and
discussions with city staff and consultants, and
RESOLVED, That the Board of Public works does herby recommend to Common
Council (xxxxx) as the preferred alternative for the location ,:a Sediment Manageme
Facility, and be it further
Page 6
RESOLVED, That if the involved agencies, with cooperation from the City, cannot resolve
any potential issues on the site, or if any issues arise during the course of the next phase
• the project that cannot be resolved, a reevaluation of the other upland sites will be
necessary.
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tLbl
Suicide Prevention
Crisis Service
12=1 East Court Street
Suicide Prevention Ithaca, ELY 14850
Crisis Service Phone (607) 272 -1505 x 12
Fax (607) 272 -1830
spc.sdevelopment@verizon.net
Richard G. Driscoll
Director of Development
Safe Bridges Declaration
Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service of Tompkins County
May, 2010
Whereas, on average, 2 — 3 people die by jumping from one of Ithaca's east hill bridges each
year in Tompkins County;
Whereas suicide is often a highly impulsive act, with the risk compounded by the presence of
drugs and alcohol;
Whereas Ithaca bridges are regarded by many as a "suicide magnet ", a romantic, iconic way to
escape via suicide;
Whereas, people ages 15 -24 are particularly attracted to "suicide magnets ", and are susceptible
to contagion effects around suicide and particular means;
Whereas, Ithaca has a large 15 -24 year old population vulnerable to suicide;
Whereas, recent research has confirmed that means restriction is the best and proven way of
reducing suicides, particularly those associated with jumping .... and that the
potential suicides don't move to other locations or means (1);
Therefore, SPCS supports well- designed opportunity barriers on key local bridges as one crucial
safety measure in order to reduce deaths by suicide in Ithaca.
Permanent barriers can and will be more appealing than the current temporary ones. Realization
of each of these opportunity barriers will require reaching a challenging balance between good
design, environmental impacts and costs, but we believe that such a balance can and must be
reached to replace the temporary barriers in a timely fashion. We believe that barriers should be
supplemented with on -site signage with resources for help.
At the same time, we call for continued and increased support of other means of preventing
deaths by suicide in our community: development of positive and supportive communities,
services and support for those at elevated risk for suicide, cooperative media use, additional
methods of means restriction, and improved health and mental health for all in our community.
The Board and Staff of Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service of Tompkins County
May, 2010
(1) SUICIDE PREVENTION ON BRIDGES: THE NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION
LIFELINE POSITION John Draper, Ph.D., Director, National Suicide Prevention Lifeline June 16,
2008.
Tamarin Trainil *5 & Resource Center 12 -1 Fast Court Street, Ithaca. New fork 145_>0
Piionl -: tb )7) 2 72-1505 - Ffl\: 607j 272-1 83D C:risislitie: f60 F) 2 72-1 G I 6
RI11aIf: SI�rS!'E'E'i'1ZC?I�.1 ?C'i \ ti' �1?' �l, SiI IC' tCicj�tC�c' I1t1011aiiClC 'IIS1SSet "�'tCi'.Ot
OTHER REPORTS OF THE IMPACT OF BRIDGE BARRIERS ON PREVENTING SUICIDES
Somewhat unfortunately, many suicide researchers appear to be now of the view that the finding that the
installation of barriers reduces suicides is so well- expected, well- understood and well -known that they either
do not conduct formal evaluations of the impact of installing barriers and/or do not seek to publish the results.
For example, it appears that the recent installation of barriers at the Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal has
not resulted in a publication about the subsequent reduction in suicides from the bridge, although this finding
is informally well -known (personal communication). Table 2 summarizes some of the many anecdotal;
informal reports of the impact of installing bridge barriers at sites of suicide by jumping.
Table 2. Reductions in suicides following installation of barriers
Site
Outcome
Reference
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Barriers reduced the incidence of suicides to 1%
Harvey and Solomons (1983)
of the on inal level
Empire State Building
Fenced the 86 floor observation platform after
Seiden and Spence (1982)
16 suicides between 1931 and 1947; number of
suicides reduced since.
The nearby Chrysler Building and Rockefeller
Centre had no increases in suicides as possible
alternative sites
Adelaide multistory car park
Safety grilles reduced incidence of jumping
Pounder, 1985
- prominent jumping site
suicides to 0; no other car parks became
Goldney, 1986
alternative sites
Gateway Bridge, Brisbane
Barriers reduced number of suicides
Cantor and Hill, 1990
No increases in jumping suicides from nearby
Storey Bridge (possible alternative site).
Mt Muhara, Japan
Barriers reduced number of suicides
Ellis and Allen, 1961
Eiffel Tower, Paris
Barriers reduced the number of suicides
Derobert et al, 1965
Arroya Seco Bridge,
Barriers reduced the number of suicides
McWilliams, 1936
Pasadena, California
References
Beautrais AL (2001). Effectiveness of barriers at suicide jumping sites: a case study. Aust N.Z J Psychiatry;
35:557 -562.
Beautrais AL, Gibb SJ, Fergusson DM, Horwood LJ, Larkin GL. Removing bridge barriers stimulates
suicides: an unfortunate natural experiment. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2009 Jun;43(6):495 -7.
Bennewith O, Nowers M, Gunnell D. Effect of barriers on the Clifton suspension bridge, England, on local
patterns of suicide: implications for prevention. Br J Psychiatry. 2007 Mar;190:266 -7[1]
Lindqvist P, Jonsson A, Eriksson A, Hedelin A, Bjomstig U (2004). Are suicides by jumping off bridges
preventable? An Analysis of 50 cases from Sweden. Accident Analysis and Prevention; 36:691 -694,
O'Carroll PW, Silverman MM, Berman. AL (ed) (1994). Community Suicide Prevention: The Effectiveness
of Bridge Barriers. Suicide Life - Threat Behav; 24:89 -99.
Pelletier AR. Preventing suicide by jumping: the effect of a bridge safety fence. Inj Prev. 2007 Feb;13(1):57-
9.
Reisch T, Michel K. Securing a suicide hot spot: Effects of a safety net at the Bern Muenster Terrace. Suicide
& Life - Threatening Behavior. 2005;35(4):460 -7.
FORMAL EVALUATION OF IMPACT OF BRIDGE BARRIERS ON PREVENTING SUICIDES.
Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol, England
Bennewith and colleagues (Bennewith et al, 2007) examined the effect of installation of barriers on the
Clifton suspension bridge, Bristol, England in 1998 on local suicides by jumping. Bridge deaths halved
from 8.2 per year (1994 - 1998) to 4.0 per year (1999 -2003; P <0.008). (NB. Only the main arches were
fenced; suicides migrated to the unfenced edges of the bridge). Although 90% of the suicides from the
bridge were by males, there was no evidence of an increase in male suicide by jumping from other sites
in the Bristol area after erection of barriers. The authors claim this study provides evidence for the
effectiveness of barriers on bridges in preventing site - specific suicides and suicides by jumping overall in
the surrounding area.
Bern Munster Terrace Bern Switzerland
Reisch and Michel (2005) reported that the city of Bern has a high percentage of suicides by jumping
(28.6 %). The highest number of deaths (mean 2.5 per year) occurred at the Muenster Terrace. In 1998,
after a series of suicides, a safety net was built to prevent people leaping from the terrace and to avoid
traumatization of people living in the street below. After the installation of the net no suicides occurred
from the terrace. The number of people jumping from all high places in Bern was significantly lower
compared to the years before, indicating that no immediate shift to other nearby jumping sites took place.
Furthermore, they found a moderate correlation between the number of media reports and the number of
persons resident outside Bern committing suicide by jumping from high places in the city.
Ellington Bridge Washington DC
O'Carroll et al. (1994) reported the effect of the construction of barriers on the Ellington Bridge in
Washington D.C.— Prior to installation of barriers, an average of four people a year died by jumping from
the bridge. In the five years following installation of barriers, there was only one suicide from the
Ellington Bridge. The number of suicides from nearby Taft Bridge, where no barriers had been installed,
remained the same.
Grafton Bridge, Auckland, New Zealand
Beautrais examined suicide patterns before and after removal of protective barriers from Grafton Bridge
in Auckland, New Zealand. (Beautrais, 2001). There were three suicides in the four years before the
barriers were removed (1992 — 1995); there were 15 suicides in the years following barrier removal
(1996 — 2002). Beautrais and colleagues (Beautrais et al, 2009) published a further paper in 2009, after
barriers had been reinstalled on Grafton Bridge, noting that following the reinstallation of the barriers
there had been no suicides for the bridge. This is the only formal evaluation of the impact of installation
of barriers, their removal, and their installation, (a (strong) a -b -a experimental design).
Memorial Bridge, Augusta, Maine
Pelletier, reported that during the 22 years after barriers were installed at the Memorial Bridge in
Augusta, Maine, in 1983, there were no suicides. Prior to the barrier installation there had been a total of
14 suicides. The conclusion from this CDC study is that the safety fence installed in 1983 was effective
in preventing further suicides from the Memorial Bridge. The number of suicides related to jumping from
other structures in Augusta remained unchanged following installation of the fence, suggesting that
suicidal individuals did not seek alternative sites.
Table 1. Summary of formal studies evaluating impact of bridge barriers
Ellington Street Bridge,
Barriers reduced number of suicides from 25 in
O'Carroll and Silverman, 1994
Washington, DC
the previous 7 years to 1 in the 5 years after the
I
installation of barriers
Clifton Suspension Bridge,
Barriers halved the number of suicides from 8 to
1
Bennewith et al, 2007
Bristol, UK
4 per year.
Bern Muenster Terrace,
Safety net reduced suicides from 2.5 per year to
1
Reisch & Michel, 2005
Switzerland
0
Memorial bridge, Augusta,
14 suicides prior to installation of barriers; after
Pelletier, 2007
I
Maine
barriers in place no suicides in 22 years
-
Grafton Bridge
3 suicides in the 4 years prior to the barriers
Beautrais, in progress
New Zealand
being removed. After removal, 15 suicides in 4
years, since reinstallation of the barriers, there
I
have been no suicides
';he Urge to End It - Understanding Suicide - NYTimes.com Page 1 of 10
% c ew go rk On wo
nyt1r S.e0rT1
?RFNTER=FRIZNDLY FORMAT _ ?IL-M FM
SPONSORED BY - '
July 6, 2008
By SCOTT ANDERSON
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem," Albert Camus wrote, "and that is suicide." How to
explain why, among the only species capable of pondering its own demise, whose desperate attempts to
forestall mortality have spawned both armies and branches of medicine in a perpetual search for the
Fountain of Youth, there are those who, by their own hand, would choose death over life? Our
;ontradictory reactions to the act speak to the conflicted hold it has on our imaginations: revulsion mixed
vith fascination, scorn leavened with pity. It is -a cardinal sin but change the packaging a little, and
; uicide assumes the guise of heroism or high passion, the stuff of literature and art.
3eyond the philosophical paradox are the bewilderingly complex dynamics of the act itself. While a
iniversal phenomenon, the incidence of suicide varies so immensely across different population groups —
mong nations and cultures, ages and gender, race and religion — that any overarching theory about its
Dot cause is rendered useless. Even identifying those subgroups that are particularly suicide -prone is of
ery limited help in addressing the issue. In the United States, for example, both elderly men living in
Testern states and white male adolescents from divorced families are at elevated risk, but since the
rerwhelming majority in both these groups never attempt suicide, how can we identify the truly at risk
nong them?
ien there is the most disheartening aspect of the riddle. The National Institute of Mental Health says that
percent of all suicide "completers" display some form of diagnosable mental disorder. But if so, why
ve advances in the treatment of mental illness had so little effect? In the past 40 years, whole new
nerations of antidepressant drugs have been developed; crisis hotline centers have been established in
)st every American city; and yet today the nation's suicide rate (11 victims per 1oo,000 inhabitants) is
host precisely what it was in 1965.
tle wonder, then, that most of us have come to regard suicide with an element of resignation, even as a
titularly brutal form of social Darwinism: perhaps through luck or medication or family intervention
ae suicidal individuals can be identified and saved, but in the larger scheme of things, there will always
:hose driven to take their own lives, and there's really not much that we can do about it. The sheer
nbers would seem to support this idea: in 2005, approximately 32,0oo Americans committed suicide,
tearly twice the number of those killed by homicide.
'he Urge to End It - Understanding Suicide - NYTimes.com-
Page 2 of 10
But part of this sense of futility may stem from a peculiar element of m o is in the way we as a society have
traditionally viewed and attempted to combat suicide. Just as with homicide; researchers have long
recognized a premeditation- versus- passion dichotomy in suicide. There are those who display the classic
symptoms of so- called suicidal behavior, who build up to their act over time or who choose methods that
require careful planning. And then there are those whose act appears born of an immediate crisis, with
little or no forethought involved. Just as with homicide, those in the "passion" category of suicide are much
more likely to turn to whatever means are immediately available, those that are easy and quick.
Yet even mental - health experts have tended to regard these very different types of suicide in much the
-ame way. I was struck by this upon meeting with two doctors who are among the most often -cited experts
)n suicide — and specifically on suicide by jumping. Both readily acknowledged the high degree of
mpulsivity associated with that method, but also considered that impulsivity as simply another symptom
)f mental illness. "Of all the hundreds of jumping suicides I've looked at," one told me, "I've yet to come
across a case where a mentally healthy person was walking across a bridge one day and just went over the
dde. It just doesn't happen. There's almost always the presence of mental illness somewhere." It seemed to
ne there was an element of circular logic here: that the act proved the intent that proved the illness.
,he bigger problem with this mental - illness rubric is that it puts emphasis on the less - knowable aspect' of
he act, the psychological "why," and tends to obscure any examination of the more pedestrian "how," the
Basic mechanics involved. But if we want to unravel posthumously the thought processes of the lost with an
ye to saving lives in the future, the "how" may be the best place to look.
'o turn the equation around: if the impulsive suicide attempter tends to reach for whatever means are easy
r quick, is it possible that the availability of means can actually spur the act? In looking at suicide's close
ousin, murder, the answer seems obvious. If a man shoots his wife amid a heated argument, we recognize
ie crucial role played by the gun's availability. We don't automatically think, Well, if the gun hadn't been
sere, he surely would have strangled her. When it comes to suicide, however, most of us make no such
Jowance. The very fact that someone kills himself we regard as proof of intent — and of mental illness; the
�tual method used, we assume, is of minor importance.
ut is it?
it turns out, one of the most remarkable discoveries about suicide and how to reduce it occurred utterly
i chance. It came about not through some breakthrough in pharmacology or the treatment of mental
ness but rather through an energy - conversion scheme carried out in Britain in the 196os and'70s.
nong those familiar with the account, it is often referred to simply as "the British coal -gas story."
rr generations, the people of Britain heated their homes and fueled their stoves with coal gas. While
entiful and cheap, coal- derived gas could also be deadly; in its unburned form, it released very high levels
carbon monoxide, and an open valve or a leak in a closed space could induce asphyxiation in a matter of
mutes. This extreme toxicity also made it a preferred method of suicide. "Sticking one's head in the oven"
The Urge to End It - Understanding Suicide - NYTimes.com Page 3 of 10
became so common in Britain that by the late 1950s it accounted for some 2,500 suicides a year, almost
half the nation's total.
Those numbers began dropping over the next decade as the British government embarked on a program to
phase out coal gas in favor of the much cleaner natural gas. By the early 1970s, the amount of carbon
monoxide running through domestic gas lines had been reduced to nearly zero. During those same years,
Britain's national suicide rate dropped by nearly a third, and it has remained close to that reduced level
ever since.
How can this be? After all, if the impulse to suicide is primarily rooted in mental illness and that illness
goes untreated, how does merely closing off one means of self - destruction have any lasting effect? At least a
partial answer is that many of those Britons who asphyxiated themselves did so impulsively. In a moment
of deep despair- or rage or sadness, they turned to what was easy and quick and deadly — "the execution
chamber in everyone's kitchen," as one psychologist described it — and that instrument allowed little time
for second thoughts. Remove it, and the process slowed down; it allowed time for the dark passion to pass.
Quite inadvertently, the British gas conversion proved that the incidence of suicide across an entire society
could be radically reduced, upending the conventional wisdom about suicide in the process. Or rather it
should have upended the conventional wisdom, for what is astonishing today is how little -known the
British coal -gas story is even among mental - health professionals who deal with suicide. Last November, I
attended a youth suicide- prevention conference in New Hampshire at which Catherine Barber, a member
of the Injury Control Research Center at the Harvard School of Public Health, gave a PowerPoint
presentation on creating physical barriers to suicide — or "means restriction," in public - health parlance —
to a large group of mental - health officials and school counselors. While giving a brief history of the
ipproach, she came to several slides describing the British gas- conversion phenomenon and paused.
`Is everyone familiar with the British coal -gas story ?" she asked. "If so, I'll just skip over this."
knowg the 150 or so attendees, only about a half -dozen hands went up. Instead, most looked quite baffled.
n Northwest Washington stands a pretty neoclassical -style bridge named for one of the city's most
amous native sans, Duke Ellington. Running perpendicular to the Ellington, a stone's throw away, is
nother bridge, the Taft. Both span Rock Creek, and even though they have virtually identical drops into
`Ze gorge below — about 125 feet — it is the Ellington that has always been notorious as Washington's
Suicide bridge." By the 198os, the four people who, on average, leapt from its stone balustrades each year
ccounted for half of all jumping suicides in the nation's capital. The adjacent Taft, by contrast, averaged
ass than two.
i
fter three people leapt from the Ellington in a single to -day period in 1985, a consortium of civic groups
bbied for a suicide barrier to be erected on the span. Opponents to the plan, which included the National
,ust for Historic Preservation, countered with the same argument that is made whenever a suicide barrier
i a bridge or landmark building is proposed: that such barriers don't really work, that those intent on
the Urge to End It - Understanding Suicide - NYTimes.com
Page 4 of 10
killing themselves will merely go elsewhere. In the Ellington's case, opponents had the added ammunition
of pointing to the equally lethal Taft standing just yards away: if a barrier were placed on the Ellington, it
was not at all hard to see exactly where thwarted jumpers would head.
Except the opponents were wrong. A study conducted five years after the Ellington barrier went up showed
that while suicides at the Ellington were eliminated completely, the rate at the Taft barely changed, inching
up from 1.7 to 2 deaths per year. What's more, over the same five -year span, the total number of jumping
suicides in Washington had decreased by 50 percent, or the precise percentage the Ellington once
accounted for.
What makes looking at jumping suicides potentially instructive is that it is a method associated with a very
high degree of impulsivity, and its victims often display few of the classic warning signs associated with
suicidal behavior. In fact, jumpers have a lower history of prior suicide attempts, diagnosed mental illness
(with the exception of schizophrenia) or drug and alcohol abuse than is found among those who die by less
lethal methods, like taking pills or poison. Instead, many who choose this method seem to be drawn by a
set of environmental cues that, together, offer three crucial ingredients: ease, speed and the certainty of
death.
So why the Ellington more than the Taft? In its own way, that little riddle rather buttresses the
environmental -cue theory, for the one glaring difference between the two bridges — a difference readily
apparent to most anyone who walked over them in their original state — was the height of their
balustrades. The concrete railing on the Taft stands chest -high on an average man, while the pre- barrier
Ellington came to just above the belt line. A jump from either was lethal, but one required a bit more effort
ind a bit more time, and both factors stand in the way of impulsive action.
3ut how do you prove that those thwarted from the Ellington, or by any other suicide barrier, don't simply
. hoose another method entirely? As it turns out, one man found a clever way to do just that. With a
;omewhat whimsical manner and the trace of a grin constantly working at one corner of his mouth,
Zichard Seiden has the appearance of someone always in the middle of telling a joke. It's not what you
night expect considering that Seiden, a professor emeritus and clinical psychologist at the University of
,alifornia at Berkeley School of Public Health, is probably best known for his pioneering work on the study
,f suicide. Much of that work has focused on the bridge that lies just across San Francisco Bay from
ampus, the Golden Gate.
ince its opening in 1937, the bridge has been regarded as one of the architectural and engineering marvels
f the loth century. For nearly as Iong, the Golden Gate has had the distinction of being the most popular
Acide magnet on earth, a place where an estimated 2,000 people have ended their lives. Over the years,
sere have been a number of civic campaigns to erect a suicide barrier on the bridge, but all have foundered
the same "they'll just find another way" belief that made the Ellington barrier so contentious.
i the late 1970s, Seiden set out to test the notion of inevitability in jumping suicides. Obtaining a Police
epartment list of all would -be jumpers who were thwarted from leaping off the Golden Gate between 1937
the Urge to End It - Understanding Suicide - NYTimes.com
Page 5 of 10
and 1971— an astonishing 515 individuals in all — he painstakingly culled death - certifi cate records -to see
how many had subsequently "completed." His report, "Where Are They Now ?" remains a landmark in the
study of suicide, for what he found was that just 6 percent of those pulled off the bridge went on to kill
themselves. Even allowing for suicides that might have been mislabeled as accidents only raised the total to
10 percent.
"That's still a lot higher than the general population, of course," Seiden, 75, explained to me over lunch in a
busy restaurant in downtown San Franciso. `But to me, the more significant fact is that go percent of them
got past it. They were having an acute temporary crisis, they passed through it and, coming out the other
side, they got on with their lives."
In Seiden's view, a crucial factor in this boils down to the issue of time. In the case of people who attempt
suicide impulsively, cutting off or slowing down their means to act allows time for the impulse to pass —
perhaps even blocks the impulse from being triggered to begin with. What is remarkable, though, is that it
appears that the same holds true for the nonimpulsive, with people who may have been contemplating the
act for days or weeks.
`At the risk of stating the obvious," Seiden said, "people who attempt suicide aren't thinking clearly. They
night have a Plan A, but there's no Plan B. They get fixated. They don't say, 'Well, I can't jump, so now I'm
;Ding to go shoot myself' And that fixation extends to whatever method they've chosen. They decide they're
;Ding to jump off a particular spot on a particular bridge, or maybe they decide that when they get there,
)ut if they discover the bridge is closed for renovations or the railing is higher than they thought, most of
here don't look around for another place to do it. They just retreat."
eiden cited a particularly striking example of this, a young man he interviewed over the course of his
'Olden Gate research. The man was grabbed on the eastern promenade of the bridge after passers -by
oticed him pacing and growing increasingly despondent. The reason? He had picked out a spot on the
estern promenade that he wanted to jump from, but separated by six lanes of traffic, he was afraid of
Ating hit by a car on his way there.
'razy, huh ?" Seiden chuckled. "But he recognized it. When he told me the story, we both laughed about
ie offices of the Injury Control Research Center are on the third floor of the Harvard School of Public
�alth building in Boston. The center, directed by David Hemenway, consists of an internationally
Zowned team of public - health officials, social scientists and statisticians, and over the past decade they
ve been in the vanguard of a movement that looks at suicide prevention in a new and very different way:
I it the Band -Aid approach.
i
ne of the differences between us and those in mental health," Hemenway explained, "is that we focus on
`how' of suicide. What are the methods used? Is there a way to mitigate them? And that's where
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Page 6 of 10
examples like the British coal -gas story are very instructive, because they show that if you can somehow
remove or complicate a method, you have the potential of saving a, tremendous number of lives."
Animating their efforts is one of the most peculiar — in fact, downright perverse — aspects to the
premeditation- versus - passion dichotomy in suicide. Put simply, those methods that require forethought or
exertion on the actor's part (taking an overdose of pills, say, or cutting your wrists), and thus most strongly
suggest premeditation, happen to be the methods with the least chance of "success."' Conversely, those
methods that require the least effort or planning (shooting yourself, jumping from a precipice) happen to
be the deadliest. The natural inference, then, is that the person who best fits the classic definition of "being
Suicidal" might actually be safer than one acting in the heat of the moment — at least 40 times safer in the
ease of someone opting for an overdose of pills over shooting himself.
ks illogical as this might seem, it is a phenomenon confirmed by research. According to statistics collected
)y the Injury Control Research Center on nearly 4,000 suicides across the United States, those who had
tilled themselves with firearms — by far the most lethal common method of suicide — had a markedly
ower history of depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, previous suicide attempts or drug or alcohol
ibuse than those who died by the least lethal methods. On the flip side, those who ranked the highest for at
risk factors tended to choose those methods with low "success" rates.
We're always going to have suicide," Hemenway said, "and there's probably not that much to be done for
he ones who are determined, who succeed on their 4th or 5th or 25th try. The ones we have a good chance
f saving are those who, right now, succeed on their first attempt because of the lethal methods they've
hosen."
aevitably, this approach means focusing on the most common method of suicide in the United States:
rearms. Even though guns account for less than 1 percent of all American suicide attempts, their extreme
Ltality rate — anywhere from 85 percent and 92 percent, depending on how the statistics are compiled —
leans that they account for 54 percent of all completions. In 2005, the last year for which statistics are
iailable, that translated into about 17,00o deaths. Public- health officials like Hemenway can point to a
:ountain of research going back 40 years that shows that the incidence of firearm suicide runs in close
irallel with the prevalence of firearms in a community. In a 2007 study that grouped the 15 states with the
ghest rate of gun ownership alongside the six states with the lowest (each group had a population of
)out 40 million), Hemenway and his associates found that when it came to all nonfirearm methods, the
To populations committed suicide in nearly equal numbers. The more than three - times - greater prevalence
firearms in the "high gun" states, however, translated into a more than three - times - greater incidence of
�earm suicides, which in turn translated into an annual suicide rate nearly double that of the "low gun"
rtes. In the same vein, their 2004 study of seven Northeastern states found that the 3.5 times greater rate
gun suicides in Vermont than in New Jersey exactly matched the difference in gun ownership between
two states (42 percent of all households in Vermont opposed to 12 percent in New Jersey). From these
d other such studies, the Injury Control Research Center has extrapolated that a Io percent reduction in
Che Urge to End It - Understanding Suicide - NYTimes.com
Page 7 of 10
firearm ownership in the United States would translate into a 2.5 percent reduction in the overall suicide
rate, or about 800 fewer deaths a year.
Beyond sheer lethality, however, what makes gun suicide attempts so resistant to traditional psychological
suicide- prevention protocols is the high degree of impulsivity that often accompanies them. In a 1985 study
Of 30 people who had survived self - inflicted gunshot wounds, more than half reported having had suicidal
thoughts for less than 24 hours, and none of the 3o had written suicide notes. This tendency toward
impulsivity is especially common among young people — and not only with gun suicides. In a 2001
University of Houston study of 153 survivors of nearly lethal attempts between the ages of 13 and 34, only
13 percent reported having contemplated their act for eight hours or longer. To the contrary, 70 percent set
the interval between deciding to kill themselves and acting at less than an hour, including an astonishing
24 percent who pegged the interval at less than five minutes.
The element of impulsivity in firearm suicide means that it is a method in which mechanical intervention —
or "means restriction" — might work to great effect. As to how, Dr. Matthew Miller, the associate director of
the Injury Control Research Center, outlined for me a number of very basic steps. Storing a gun in a
bekbox, for example, slows down the decision - making process and puts that gun off - limits to everyone but
he possessor of the key. Similarly, studies have shown that merely keeping a gun unloaded and storing its
ammunition in a different room significantly reduces the odds of that gun being used in a suicide.
`The goal is to put more time between the person and his ability to act," Miller said. "If he has to go down
o the basement to get his ammunition or rummage around in his dresser for the key to the gun safe, you're
ejecting time and effort into the equation — maybe just a couple of minutes, but in a lot of cases that may
)e enough."
t reminded me of what Richard Seiden said about people thwarted from jumping off the Golden Gate
ridge. When I mentioned this to Miller, he smiled. "It's very much the same," he said. "The more obstacles
ou can throw up, the more you move it away from being an impulsive act. And once you've done that, you
Ike a lot of people out of the game. If you look at how people get into trouble, it's usually because they're
eting impulsively, they haven't thought things through. And that's just as true with suicides as it is with
•affic accidents."
met Debbie in the lobby of a resort hotel just outside Burlington, Vt. She is a very pretty woman who
)oks far younger than her 50 years, and her shoulder - length blond hair neatly conceals the damage to the
ght side of her head. She has no difficulty speaking, certainly none with memory. In fact, it is only when
to stands that her injuries are apparent; leaning on a cane, she moves slowly, shifting her partly paralyzed
ft side much like someone who has suffered a stroke. "People often think I was in a car accident or
mething," she said with a tentative smile. "If they ask, I usually just say, `It's a long story,' and leave it at
.at."
atil the spring of 2004, Debbie lived a particularly Rockwellian version of the American middle -class
perience. Married to an investment banker and residing in a picturesque village in northern Vermont,
ie Urge to End It - Understanding Suicide - NYTimes.com Page 8 of 10
'he worked part time at the local town hall while playing soccer mom to her two children, a boy and a girl.
Chat spring; however, with both her children off to college, she became increasingly aware of a certain
tridness in her marriage and felt besieged by the demands of a new full -time job. After she and her
huband endured a hellish cycle of trial separations followed by brief rapprochements, he finally asked for
t divorce. The day before they were to sign divorce papers in May 2005, Debbie drove to a nearby gun store
.nd told the manager she wanted to buy a handgun for self - protection. After her driver's license was run to
cake sure she had no felony convictions, Debbie walked out of the store with a .3$- caliber revolver and a
,acket of hollow-point bullets. The whole process took about 15 minutes.
I just didn't see any other way out of the situation," she said. "I seemed incapable of making a decision
bout my marriage, about my job. I just felt so overwhelmed with everything."
ack home, she went up to her master bathroom with the gun and closed the door behind her. Not wanting
leave a mess, she thought to lay a dark towel in the shower, then stepped inside and sat down.
aradoxically, it may have been Debbie's fastidious streak that saved her life. Unfamiliar with guns and
ithout a mirror to guide her hand, she set the revolver to her head at an odd angle. The bullet cut a path
trough a portion of her brain before exiting at the back of her skull, but it also left Debbie as one of the
,ry few people ever to survive a hollow -point shot to the head.
le remembers feeling a moment of intense pain and then nothing else for a long time. Her next memory is
her husband, standing over her and screaming, "What have you done ?" and the sound of an approaching
nbulance. She found she could speak, but all she kept saying over and over was: "I don't want to die.
ease, I don't want to die."
with every other survivor of a near - lethal suicide attempt that I spoke with, Debbie told her story with
almost eerie poise. There was one moment, though, at which she suddenly fell silent, where words failed
r.
ou know, I hear myself describing all this," she said, "but it seems completely surreal. I feel like I'm
scribing a movie I saw or a book I read. Even sitting here now and looking at that" — she motioned to her
:ie — "it's hard to believe this is something I actually did."
uspected part of her incredulity stemmed from the recentness of the event; it had been less than three
irs. But perhaps it was also rooted in something more profound. What united all the survivors I spoke
:h was a sense of having been so utterly transformed by their experiences that, in essence, they had
;ome different people.
California, I met with Ken Baldwin, a schoolteacher who, in the grips of a deep depression 22 years ago,
Dt from the Golden Gate Bridge.
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"I've had two lives," Baldwin said. "That's the only way I've ever been able to describe it. Up to the day I
jumped, that was one life, and now this is another. I'm not so much a changed man as a completely
different one, and that's why it's so hard to even recollect what I was like back then, what I was thinking."
One aspect of the survivors' personalities that appears to have been left behind is whatever mind - tumble
caused them to try to kill themselves in the first place. Since their attempts, none of the survivors I spoke
with had experienced another impulse toward suicide. Nor had they spent much time seeing p 4yehologists
or hanging out in support groups. In Baldwin's case, he attended just five therapy sessions after his jump
from the Golden Gate.
"And after that fifth session," he recalled, "the therapist said: `You know, I really don't think you need to do
this anymore. You seem to have it all put back together.' And he was right."
For each, it's almost as if their near -death experience scared them straight, propelled them back to a point
of recovery beyond even their own imagining. But that's actually not so unusual; just as Seiden found that
less than to percent of people thwarted from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge went on to kill
themselves, a host of studies show that same percentage holds among those who carry out "near fatal"
attempts but somehow survive. Beginning in the 1970s, Dr. David Rosen, a psychiatrist and Jungian
psychoanalyst, tracked down and conducted lengthy interviews with nine people who survived leaps from
the Golden Gate, as well as one who had gone off the nearby Bay Bridge.
"What was immediately apparent," Rosen recounted, "was that none of them had truly wanted to die. They
had wanted their inner pain to stop; they wanted some measure of relief; and this was the only answer they
:ould find. They were in spiritual agony, and they sought a physical solution."
.n September 2000, Kevin Hines, a 19- year -old college student suffering from bipolar disorder, leapt from
he Golden Gate. Along with Ken Baldwin, he is one of only 29 known survivors of the fall. Today Hines
:ontrols his bipolar disorder with medication and a strictly controlled regimen of diet and exercise and
leep, even while maintaining a frenetic schedule. Having recently married, he is frequently on the road
�cturing for a suicide - prevention network while simultaneously working toward a ps cy_hology degree. One
f his most intense ambitions, though, is to finally see a suicide barrier erected on the Golden Gate.
I'll tell you what I can't get out of my head," he told me in his San Francisco living room. "It's watching my
ands come off that railing and thinking to myself, My God, what have I just done? Because I know that
most everyone else who's gone off that bridge, they had that exact same thought at that moment. All of a
idden, they didn't want to die, but it was too late. Somehow I made it; they didn't; and now I feel it's my
!sponsibility to speak for them."
'ottAnderson is a frequent contributor to the magazine. His last article was about the war in Lebanon
2006.
Cooyright 2008 The New York Times ComDan