“It’s a surprise to me that this number is going up, and I don’t think the public knows it.”

posted by kirkaracha

July 31, 2007 8:59 am

An inside look at who jumps. Marin County Coroner Ken Holmes has released a study of 10 years of suicide jumps from the Golden Gate Bridge.

The study, released on Monday by Marin County Coroner Ken Holmes, whose office handles most deaths from the bridge, showed that over 85 percent of the people who jump are Bay Area residents. The average jumper was 41.7 years old; men outnumber women nearly 3 to 1; and whites account for 83 percent of the dead, Holmes found in his review of data from January 1996 to July 26 of this year.

...

His report also noted that San Francisco and Marin counties had the highest number of victims, followed by Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties. The youngest was a 14-year-old girl and the oldest was an 84-year-old man. The report also noted that 76 percent of all jumps were witnessed by tourists or commuters.

The study is somewhat controversial because some people feel that publicizing the number of people who have jumped inspires other people to jump (Homes used to argue in favor of not disclosing the number). Holmes is a member of the Bridge Rail Foundation, which advocates installing a suicide barrier on the bridge. According to their web site, a safety railing was part of Joseph Strauss' original design for the bridge.