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Friday August 15, 2008

Nothing golden about a bridge without a suicide barrier

by rabbi stacy friedman

When I first arrived in the Bay Area 15 years ago, my predecessor at Congregation Rodef Sholom, Rabbi Michael Barenbaum, picked me up at the airport and drove me across the Golden Gate Bridge to my new home in Marin County.

While I was admiring the view, entranced by the grandeur, he told me with great sadness about a congregant, a young man, who had recently jumped to his death from the bridge.

Since my first drive across the bridge, too many people — among them congregants and community members as well as a dear friend of mine — have committed suicide at the bridge lost their lives to the lure of the most beautiful span in the world. In their memory, I am committed to doing all I can to make sure that a suicide barrier is built on the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District is considering five designs for a suicide barrier. Public comment on the matter is open through Aug. 25; the board is expected to make a decision in October. When asked by a bridge board member which design I favored, I responded that any design would do as long as a barrier is built.

As we all know, there has been much debate regarding the barrier, with public opinion leaning against it. To me, the overwhelming opposition represents not only a clear misunderstanding of the facts and data, but a skewed prioritizing of values as well.

Objections to the barrier are threefold: expense, aesthetics and prevention. But for me, the money and the view are not the issue. Saving lives is. And a suicide barrier will save lives. The evidence is clear and well documented.

In his landmark 1978 study “Where are They Now,” Richard Seiden tested the contention that people wanting to jump will “just go someplace else.” He painstakingly researched the 515 people who attempted to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge from opening day in 1937 through April 1978 but were restrained.

He discovered that only 6 percent of those pulled from the bridge found another way to end their lives, suggesting that most bridge suicides are impulsive acts. Twenty-five years after their threatened jump, the remaining 94 percent were alive or had died of natural causes. Of the 26 people who jumped off the bridge and survived, only one subsequently committed suicide.

The data indicate that suicide is crisis-oriented and acute in nature, and that those whose suicide attempts are thwarted do not seek another place or way to kill themselves.

Standing before us is the opportunity to save lives, the duty to save lives. We must insist that the bridge board build a barrier. Jewish tradition demands no less of us.

Leviticus 19:16 implores us, “Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds.” The talmudic rabbis interpret this verse to mean that when people are in danger of drowning, it is the duty of all who can swim to jump in and save them.

The cardinal precept in all of Judaism, pikuach nefesh — saving a life — supercedes everything else. Everything. The Golden Gate Bridge is the largest suicide magnet in the world, with a total of almost 1,600 deaths. Last year alone, 34 bridge suicides were confirmed, and each year an additional 80 people attempt to jump.

Barriers have been erected throughout the world at suicide epicenters. After 140 people jumped to their deaths into a volcano in Tokyo, a barrier was built, stopping further suicide attempts. When a bridge in Toronto became a prime suicide location, a barrier was erected, also preventing more attempts.

Many contend that a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge would ruin the view. This clearly was not a concern in Paris or New York, where barriers were constructed on both the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building.

The Bay Area is on the forefront of so many critical social issues. Why do we continue to lag on this critical moral issue? Critics balk at the $40 million to $50 million price tag, but when we divide the cost of a barrier among the victims of the bridge, it amounts to only $28,000 per person. How much is one life worth to you?

We have an opportunity to save lives right now. Write to board members. State your opinion on the bridge district’s online poll (www.ggbsuicidebarrier.org) by the Aug. 25 deadline. Encourage others to do the same.

I believe that a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge is an ethical obligation not only to its victims past and future, but to our society as well. As our talmudic scholars teach, to save one life is to save the entire world.

Rabbi Stacy Friedman is the senior rabbi of Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael.

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