Akron bridge draws those intent on suicide

AKRON (AP) — The man pulled over and got out of his vehicle, then climbed over the chest-high brown railing with a lighted cigarette in his hand and jumped.

Jeffrey Coleman watched from his yard as the man, flailing his arms and kicking his legs, fell 120 feet to his death.

It wasn’t the first time that someone committed suicide in Coleman’s inner-city neighborhood, nestled in a green valley near Akron’s All-America bridge, also known as the Y bridge for the way it divides in two at one end.

Coleman thinks a barrier to deter jumpers is long overdue at the bridge where 26 people have committed suicide over the last 10 years, including seven in 2006.

In Akron, like other cities where easy-to-climb bridges attract those seeking to end their lives, the effort to construct barriers gets sidetracked by high costs and debates over whether they only cause depressed individuals to choose another way to die.

However, most mental health experts say barriers deter suicides, and one study suggests an individual contemplating suicide would not seek another site to jump.

Barrier studies are under way at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, where more than 1,200 suicides have occurred since 1937, and in Seattle where 50 people have killed themselves since 1995 by jumping from the Aurora Bridge.

Like Akron’s Y bridge, the Aurora Bridge spans a populated area, this one composed of tech companies that have moved in over the last 20 years along with trendy shops and restaurants. The suicides have traumatized workers.

“If you’re on the promenade at lunch, you might see someone jumping off,” said Gregg Hirakawa, spokesman for the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Although there’s strong support for a barrier, finding $5 million for the project is a problem, Hirakawa said.