Public Safety, Preservation Collide on Cold Spring Canyon Bridge
[Noozhawk’s note: This is the first article in a four-day series on Cold Spring Canyon Bridge. Click here for Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen’s explanation of our series. Click here for a related slide show.]
Cold Spring Canyon Bridge is a graceful, 1,200-foot-long steel span that connects coast and valley as Highway 154 crosses San Marcos Pass in the mountains above Santa Barbara.
But its spare, slender design has helped make the bridge a dividing line, pitting preservationists against mental health advocates and law enforcement. That’s because the structure has been a destination for those seeking to end their lives, a fact both sides agree on. It’s the question of how to prevent more deaths that has the two camps battling over the bridge’s future.
Cold Spring Canyon Bridge has had a tragic history since it opened to traffic in February 1964. Just three months later, the first suicide was recorded when a young mother of four fell to her death. Since then, 53 people have leaped from the bridge, with eight in 2009 alone. The death toll has prompted a community outcry for preventative safety measures.
According to Caltrans, suicides off the bridge account for the highest concentration of fatalities for any location along the state highway system in its District 5, which includes Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties.
The controversy centers around the bridge’s existing safety rail, which runs the length of the span and sits a mere 2 feet, 7 inches above the two-lane roadway’s concrete curb. Peering over the existing railing reveals the canyon a dizzying 420 feet below, surrounded on both sides by a steep, wooded ravine. Extending this railing’s height and creating a barrier of sorts would help prevent suicides, according to those calling for such measures.
In 2009, Caltrans approved a $3 million project that would result in the addition of a 9-foot-7-inch barrier along the bridge sides. Almost half of the funds will come from federal stimulus allocations, with the remainder drawn from state monies for highway safety improvements. Construction is expected to start later this month.
Proponents also say a barrier would protect law-enforcement personnel who respond to calls of a potential suicide. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department estimates it has dispatched deputies to about 160 incidents on the bridge between 2001 and 2009, and officials say that any call that puts responders on the bridge at all is potentially dangerous.
Perhaps the most stomach-turning encounter occurred in 2006 when a sheriff’s deputy was nearly pulled over the side as she grabbed a man who had started to jump. Video taken from a patrol car’s camera shows two other deputies intervening to save the officer, whose feet had already been pulled off the ground by the man. Both the deputy and the would-be jumper were pulled back to safety.
Sheriff’s Cmdr. Dominick Palera was in charge of the deputy who risked her life in the incident.
“We’ve had people ask, ‘Why dont you just tell (the officers) all to stand back?’” Palera told Noozhawk. “We’re trained to assist people, even those who wish to harm themselves.”
Palera said the deputy made the right decision to intervene, adding that each officer must make judgment calls when talking with someone who may be trying to commit suicide.
Although he’s never responded to a call of a potential jumper, Palera has been present on the bridge while the department performs a body recovery.
“It’s not an easy feeling when you’re standing on the bridge,” he said. Combine the low railing with the high winds that can sweep through the canyon and cause the bridge to sway and “you get an uneasy feeling in your stomach,” he said.
Palera said many people have been saved over the years, although the actual figure is difficult to determine. When efforts to intervene aren’t successful, Palera said it can take a psychological toll, as he’s seen when he debriefs deputies who have dealt with such situations.
“People who are successful at saving a life, that’s a tremendous feeling,” he said. “But when things don’t go well, you live with that. You always feel like you could’ve done more.”
But the danger and trauma for law enforcement doesn’t end on top of the bridge. The sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team is responsible for descending into the canyon to retrieve the body below it.
Former Search and Rescue squad member Jon Sullivan served on the team for nearly 10 years, and estimates he’s responded to about 25 calls to recover bodies at the site. Dispatch usually receives a 9-1-1 call whenever anyone is walking on the bridge. If a jumper lands anywhere other than on Stagecoach Road below the bridge, Search and Rescue is called out to search the canyon.
All of the Search and Rescue crew members are volunteers, and they may get a call for a body recovery while working at their day jobs, like Sullivan. When he gets word of a jumper, “I think the worst thought is ‘I really hope I don’t know this person,’” he said. “It’s definitely one of the more gruesome things I’ve ever seen in my life, in that situation.”
Although Sullivan said the team works hard to not put its members in dangerous situations to recover the bodies, “the reality is it’s really rough and really steep,” he said.
When a body is located, team members will place it on a stretcher and either carry it out or raise it to the top of the bridge, which requires that the bridge be shut down but is safer for rescuers.
“That causes a huge traffic problem, so it depends a lot on the time of day and how accessible it is,” he said.
Although the recoveries are a small part of the Search and Rescue Team’s responsibilities, Sullivan said 2009 had the highest number of incidents he had encountered.
“Having seen it, I have an appreciation for how horrible it must be in one of these people’s families to get a phone call the next morning,” he said. “A lot of these people are young — late teens, 20s, 30s. It’s just sad.”
Indeed, with the majority of victims South Coast residents, it’s likely that many people know, or are related to, someone who has committed suicide from the bridge.
And with no barrier, there’s no way to limit the intent of a suicidal person, according to psychologist Lisa Firestone, an expert on suicide assessment and prevention at the nonprofit Glendon Association, 5383 Hollister Ave., Suite 140. The problem, she says, is that suicidal people are ambivalent, and with the bridge, there’s no time for them to change their minds.
“If someone jumps off our bridge, they have the intent, they do it, and there’s no going back,” she said. “Any time we can put between them and their suicide plan, the more likely they are to live.”
Firestone, along with many in the mental health community, are advocates of what is termed “means restriction,” which is the basic assumption that limiting the opportunities for a person to commit suicide will keep deaths down. Toronto’s Bloor Street Viaduct Bridge has had success preventing suicides since implementing its “Luminous Veil” barrier, and Firestone says the same could be true for Cold Spring Canyon Bridge, should a barrier be erected.
“It’s worked wherever they’ve done it,” she said. “It’s a very powerful intervention.”
Firestone admits that installing a barrier doesn’t deal with the underlying mental health issues, but she said she believes it can stop the problem from happening.
“Of the 29 people who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge and lived, only one went on to kill himself,” she said. “We don’t get to treat people unless they’re still alive, then we have a chance.”
Firestone added that effective treatments exist for suicidal individuals.
Firestone is acutely aware of the psychological impacts that these deaths have on the community. People who have witnessed someone on the bridge and been unable to prevent the jump are often traumatized, as are unsuspecting passers-by. Firestone tells of an avid cyclist, who had lost his own daughter to suicide, who was riding his bicycle along Stagecoach Road underneath the bridge when he discovered the body of a jumper in the road.
“He stopped to offer assistance to this person lying in the road, thinking something had happened to them and he could save them,” she said. “But it was a jumper, and obviously that was traumatizing.”
Firestone has also counseled many of the families who have lost someone on the bridge, and all of those families are supportive of a barrier.
“They want their person to have lived,” she said. “They were devastated by that loss. Sometimes we need to protect people from themselves.”
Clinical psychologist Neil Rocklin, a lecturer at CSU Channel Islands, agrees.
“When you weigh the consequences of an individual suicide’s impact on all of the family members, to not erect a barrier to prevent that is irresponsible,” he said.
But these views are not universal. While proponents wholeheartedly support the barrier project, some opponents have problems with the historical and aesthetic impacts on the bridge as well as perceived errors committed during the procedural process. A California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit filed last year by the preservationist group, Friends of the Bridge, alleges that the project approval process deprived the public of the opportunity to comment on central elements. The group also says the draft environmental impact report didn’t include all adequate information.
“The project evokes strong emotions and deep-seated opinions concerning the appropriateness of erecting a physical barrier on this historic bridge to address the tragic social phenomenon of suicide. These issues are not the subject of this litigation,” the lawsuit states.
Friends of the Bridge, and its most outspoken member, Marc McGinnes, cite various reasons for opposing the barrier project, but the procedural process ranks highest among them. They say that is why they’ve sued Caltrans. These views, and the lawsuit, will be explored in more detail in part three of this series.
Rocklin disagrees with the argument over the bridge’s aesthetics. A barrier on the bridge would diminish the likelihood of suicides, and that is success to him.
“You may save four yet still lose one. Does that diminish the four?” he asked. “No. The beauty of the bridge is not diminished by people being safe.”
Noozhawk’s Cold Spring Canyon Bridge Series
Tomorrow: Creativity a Hallmark of Bridge Barrier Alternatives, Funding
» Click here for free suicide prevention resources that are available 24 hours a day.
» Click here for Day Three’s main story: For Barrier Opponents, There’s No Bridging This Divide.
» Click here for Day Four’s main story: Bridge Barrier Debate May Be Resolved in Span of a Month.
» Click here for Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen’s explanation of our series.
» Click here for a timeline of Cold Spring Canyon Bridge.
» Click here for a list of the various suicide prevention measures that were considered.
» Click here for a list of landmark bridges around the world employing suicide-prevention barriers.
» Click here for Cold Spring Canyon Bridge facts and engineering numbers.
» Leading Off: Just What Can We Say, and How? Suicide is a touchy topic for the media. Here’s what Noozhawk does, and why.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Comments
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» on 05.03.10 @ 07:44 AM
If just one life can be saved by installing some preventative rails on the bridge, then that is a reasonable public expense. The aesthetic beauty of the bridge would not be compromised if a good design is chosen and implemented. Experts say some suicidal individuals act impulsively and can be helped if they can be deterred.
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» on 05.03.10 @ 08:08 AM
It’s a BRIDGE. Aesthetically pleasing no doubt, but its primary purpose is utilitarian - to get people safely from one side of the pass to the other. All bridges have some sort of railing and what we’re arguing about here is how high this one should be. It’s simple - It should be as high as it needs to be to accomplish its mission, getting people from one side to the other, safely. I’m sure the existing rail is reinforced in some way to offer some resistance to vehicles which might otherwise drive off the bridge; so it works for that purpose. But it is obviously not effective when it comes to protecting people from falling/jumping from the bridge. So it needs to be fixed. If there were any other part of Highway 154 where we could count on nearly one death per year (not to mention 8 in one year) and those deaths could be reduced or prevented, it would be done. That the fix may interfere slightly with a VIEW is a ridiculous argument.
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» on 05.03.10 @ 08:14 AM
I know this may seem harsh, but leave the bridbe alone.
I have suffered the loss because of suicide. I understand the arguements made by the family members and law enforcement.
Retrain the Officers to stand back and try to talk them down. If that doesn’t work, the person has the right to do with their life what they want. If you put barriers up, they will just find another bridge to jump from or another way to end their lives.
As for the family members, they will cling to any story that makes them believe their family member would be alive if… and they will support this. The fact is, if not this bridge, then another or some other way.
The people that jumped from the Golden Gate did not believe they would fail at their attempt and live.
I am tired of More Governement and people telling us what we can and can’t do. If you have to do something, run netting on each side of the bridge or clear paths in the area below the bridge for resucue personnel to safely access the bodies.
I like the view from the bridge as I drive accross it. So do many others. Quit impacting our lives just so you can interfere in someone elses life.
I am sorry for those affected by this problem. I know it is a difficult thing to deal with the self imposed guilt or trauma. That however, is the responsibility of the person ending their life. Not my responsibility.
Do not interfere with my life. People are very innovative. If you put up a barrier that will interfere with my view from the bridge, your statistics will show a change. Fewer deaths from jumping off the bridge. The barrier, however, will not reduce the amount of suicides. They will just find another place or another way.
Just ask my niece (if she were still alive). She wanted to die and she found a way.
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» on 05.03.10 @ 09:44 AM
This article left out that other obvious problem, it’s not the bridge that causes suicides, nor is the bridge the only way it can be done, and didn’t present an opposite point of view. Actually, we should want them to try at the bridge. At least there is a chance someone can talk to them and maybe save them. How do you talk to someone who has hanged themselves in their garage, or sat in a car with a hose from the tailpipe to the interior with the car idling, or slit their wrists in a warm bath, or taken an overdose of oxycotin, etc. There are so many ways to kill oneself privately that don’t require the time to drive to the bridge or allow officers to arrive when someone is so obviously and publicly about to attempt suicide. The idea that removing one way of committing suicide will do anything to lessen those deaths is ludicrous. If you are really in favor of preventing suicides then you should want people to think of the bridge, not do it the secret.
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» on 05.03.10 @ 11:57 AM
Leave this beautifult bridge beautiful and spend the money on the mental health and suicide prevention facilities instead. “Saving one life at any cost” may feel good, so spend your own money that way, not mine.
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» on 05.03.10 @ 01:31 PM
I’m an avid environmentalist, and I don’t see how anyone could argue that the barrier should not go up for aesthetic purposes, ESPECIALLY given it’s history. I hope Marc McGinnes and his group never experience a friend or relative commit suicide. That’s what it might take to jar them out of their insensitivity. They’re giving environmentalists a bad name. They aren’t environmentalists–they are cold-blooded.
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» on 05.03.10 @ 02:15 PM
How do you stop violence? Take away all weapons? Violence will still occur. Same applies to suicide. Some say whatever we do is worth it if we save one person. Well why not try to help people BEFORE they become suicidal? This whole bridge controversy shows us one thing and that is we are not interested in helping anyone. The bridge barrier is a weak and pathetic band-aid that does nothing to solve the underlying problem and has the added effect of removing the problem from public consciousness. If someone, as writers above stated, is standing on that bridge then we see them and we have a chance to intervene. Remove this high profile place from public concern and concern for the suicidal is removed as well, out of sight out of mind.
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» on 05.03.10 @ 05:45 PM
Safetyfirst,
I and many of the Friends of the Bridge have experienced the pain caused by suicide in our families and among friends, but unlike some, I and they have done the hard work of getting past the feelings of guilt, shame, and all the rest. So, you and the others who are trying to use emotional blackmail and name calling to get your way can just . . . . give it a rest.
The truth, as we Friends see it, is that we have a better plan to save lives (the human barriers plan) at the bridge while preserving its justly famous grace and beauty.
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» on 05.04.10 @ 08:39 AM
Say Marc, why would you think your plan is “a better plan”? You don’t have the exclusive right to determine what’s best for everyone. I, too, have been touched by suicide from someone close to me. How dare you imply that those who want barriers haven’t healed from the emotional pain as well as you. What kind of a stance is that to take? Like I said, cruel.
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» on 05.04.10 @ 03:25 PM
Dear Safetyfirst,
My claim about the relative merits of human barriers plan is grounded in the opinion of one of the nation’s leading suicide prevention experts, Gary Spielmann, and his written comments to Caltrans concerning it. He explains why a human barriers plan is “superior” from a suicide prevention perspective to the cold, hard steel barriers approach being pursued by Caltrans. The human barriers plan has been working well for the five bridges managed by the New York State Bridge Authority. No plan is perfect; fences are climbed regularly, and even human barriers do not always suffice.
Details about the human barriers plan and Spielmann’s comments concerning it are on the Friends website at http://www.cscbfriends.com
You wrote “How dare you imply that those who want barriers haven’t healed from the emotional pain as well as you?” I see your point. Please know that I do not mean to imply what you describe. I will simply report my experience: More than a few of the many of my fellow citizens with whom I have spoken or corresponded about this issue over the past three years have let me know that they are in the throes of emotional pain and suffering about how their lives have been affected by suicide and that they feel anger and resentment towards me and others who, it appears to them, are cold-blooded and cruel to oppose the barriers proposal.
There is a great deal of literature on the subject of “unrecovered suicide victims/survivors” and the need for suicide prevention programs and other mental health professionals to address their needs. There are ways of doing so, but none of them are quick and easy. As someone who knows this, I have a solid basis for believing that putting a barrier on the Cold Spring Bridge is NOT an appropriate way to try to meet such needs.
Thanks for the opportunity.
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» on 05.04.10 @ 05:10 PM
I suggest any member of Friends of the Bridge accompany the Search and rescue volunteers the next time they do a body recovery. Please help them find all the body parts, (yeah, many times they are in pieces) help them put the parts in the bag, go with the deputy to the loved ones house and listen to the deputy tell them how their loved one died.
I guess you could call my group, Friends of the Victims.
CHefley
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» on 05.05.10 @ 07:19 AM
“I suggest any member of Friends of the Bridge accompany the Search and rescue volunteers the next time they do a body recovery. Please help them find all the body parts, (yeah, many times they are in pieces) help them put the parts in the bag, go with the deputy to the loved ones house and listen to the deputy tell them how their loved one died.
I guess you could call my group, Friends of the Victims.
CHefley”
I’m sure that’s much more traumatic than cleaning someones brains off the walls and ceiling after they used a shotgun on their head.
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