Rule change may allow suicide barrier on span / ‘Total effectiveness’ requirement likely to be tossed today

Golden Gate Bridge District directors are expected to remove a building requirement today that many believe stands in the way of plans for a suicide barrier on the span.

The district’s building and operating committee approved criteria Thursday for the development of a suicide deterrent system, eliminating the requirement that a barrier “must be totally effective.”

The full board is expected to ratify new criteria today requiring only that a suicide barrier “impede the ability of an individual to jump.”

The change was seen as a victory for suicide barrier proponents, who have long maintained that it is impossible to design a “totally effective” deterrent.

All I can say is, “About time.” It’s amazing that some people in San Francisco believe that the aesthics of an inanimate object — no matter how beautiful — is worth more than a human life. Or 19 lives a year who choose the bridge as their suicide means.

That means that, since 1970 when a barrier was first proposed, 665 people have died while bureaucrats have debated and discussed this issue. While certainly many of those folks may have simply found another way to take their own lives, how many would’ve decided otherwise had a barrier been in place?

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 27 Apr 2005
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.