I better get my jump in while it's still free
Life - or death - at the Golden Gate
SURVIVOR: Jumper says barrier would have stopped him
Tuesday, March 8, 2005
By PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
SCOTT MANCHESTER /PD
Pedestrians enjoy the view from mid-span of the Golden Gate Bridge. About 1,300 people have jumped to their deaths from the bridge.
Zoom Photo | Buy Photo ?
WHAT'S NEXT
Golden Gate Bridge district board of directors will take up the issue of conducting a two-year, $2 million suicide barrier study when they meet at 10 a.m. Friday in the Administration Building at the Golden Gate Bridge Toll Plaza in San Francisco.
Few people jump from the Golden Gate Bridge and live to talk about it. Kevin Hines is one of them.
Suffering from mental illness and hearing voices, he left classes at San Francisco City College early Sept. 25, 2000, and headed by bus to the bridge. Hines planned to kill himself.
He paced for 40 minutes near the center of the span as a battle waged in his head. After a German tourist asked him to take her picture, he decided it was time.
"I thought, 'Nobody cares,'" said Hines, then 19.
Facing the city skyline, Hines dropped his book bag on the sidewalk, placed both hands on the 4½-foot iron rail and slung himself over. The frigid water waited 220 feet below.
Almost immediately, Hines regretted it.
"I didn't want to die," he said. "The water was just rushing at me and I couldn't do anything about it."
Hines plunged feet first at about 75 mph, shattering his back and ankle on impact.
The force sent him about 50 feet below the surface, and he struggled to swim for air. Wet clothes and a strong current worked against Hines. He was being swept out to sea.
"I thought I would drown," Hines said. "I kept bobbing up and down."
Fortunately, the jump was seen by officers on the bridge and a Coast Guard cutter stationed nearby. Hines was picked up within minutes and rushed to Marin General Hospital, badly shaken but alive.
It was a rarity. Since the bridge opened in 1937, about 1,300 people are known to have committed suicide by jumping from it. It is said that only about two dozen people have survived such a jump.
After authorities found a suicide note and summoned his father, San Francisco banker Patrick Hines, to the hospital, Hines slipped into unconsciousness for three weeks.
"I didn't know if he was going to live or die. I believed he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life," Patrick Hines said.
But Hines woke up. It was the beginning of a months-long healing process that eventually put him back on his feet.
It also brought the family a new perspective on suicide prevention.
Father and son have since become leading voices in the campaign for a suicide barrier.
The elder Hines also supports another idea. He said charging a toll to pedestrians would reduce the number of suicides and would help pay for safety improvements.
"A toll, by my son's testimony, would have stopped him," Patrick Hines said. "He had no money and in such a state of emotional disarray he could not have been able to pay. Many who come to the bridge are in the same state."
Kevin Hines speaks to high school students and adults about his experience, urging people considering suicide to seek treatment.
He pleaded with bridge officials recently to erect the barrier and criticized past inaction as "morally reprehensible."
"If there were a barrier, I wouldn't be going through this now," said Hines, who now takes antidepressants and lives in a residential care home. "I wouldn't have a metal plate in my back."
I'm completely opposed to it. We shouldn't pad the world to prevent death by choice. And there are so many other options, even if the bridge is no longer one. "Oh you're here from Germany to walk on our bridge, eh? Well that'll be about tree-fitty, we have to charge you money to prevent our citizens from offing themselves." Of course, when something impacts your life like this you need a cause to attach yourself to, it's the new human nature. This is the stuff that erects public parks, community centers, laws, and the like.
I'd go on but it would just be the usual libertarian spiel..
SURVIVOR: Jumper says barrier would have stopped him
Tuesday, March 8, 2005
By PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
SCOTT MANCHESTER /PD
Pedestrians enjoy the view from mid-span of the Golden Gate Bridge. About 1,300 people have jumped to their deaths from the bridge.
Zoom Photo | Buy Photo ?
WHAT'S NEXT
Golden Gate Bridge district board of directors will take up the issue of conducting a two-year, $2 million suicide barrier study when they meet at 10 a.m. Friday in the Administration Building at the Golden Gate Bridge Toll Plaza in San Francisco.
Few people jump from the Golden Gate Bridge and live to talk about it. Kevin Hines is one of them.
Suffering from mental illness and hearing voices, he left classes at San Francisco City College early Sept. 25, 2000, and headed by bus to the bridge. Hines planned to kill himself.
He paced for 40 minutes near the center of the span as a battle waged in his head. After a German tourist asked him to take her picture, he decided it was time.
"I thought, 'Nobody cares,'" said Hines, then 19.
Facing the city skyline, Hines dropped his book bag on the sidewalk, placed both hands on the 4½-foot iron rail and slung himself over. The frigid water waited 220 feet below.
Almost immediately, Hines regretted it.
"I didn't want to die," he said. "The water was just rushing at me and I couldn't do anything about it."
Hines plunged feet first at about 75 mph, shattering his back and ankle on impact.
The force sent him about 50 feet below the surface, and he struggled to swim for air. Wet clothes and a strong current worked against Hines. He was being swept out to sea.
"I thought I would drown," Hines said. "I kept bobbing up and down."
Fortunately, the jump was seen by officers on the bridge and a Coast Guard cutter stationed nearby. Hines was picked up within minutes and rushed to Marin General Hospital, badly shaken but alive.
It was a rarity. Since the bridge opened in 1937, about 1,300 people are known to have committed suicide by jumping from it. It is said that only about two dozen people have survived such a jump.
After authorities found a suicide note and summoned his father, San Francisco banker Patrick Hines, to the hospital, Hines slipped into unconsciousness for three weeks.
"I didn't know if he was going to live or die. I believed he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life," Patrick Hines said.
But Hines woke up. It was the beginning of a months-long healing process that eventually put him back on his feet.
It also brought the family a new perspective on suicide prevention.
Father and son have since become leading voices in the campaign for a suicide barrier.
The elder Hines also supports another idea. He said charging a toll to pedestrians would reduce the number of suicides and would help pay for safety improvements.
"A toll, by my son's testimony, would have stopped him," Patrick Hines said. "He had no money and in such a state of emotional disarray he could not have been able to pay. Many who come to the bridge are in the same state."
Kevin Hines speaks to high school students and adults about his experience, urging people considering suicide to seek treatment.
He pleaded with bridge officials recently to erect the barrier and criticized past inaction as "morally reprehensible."
"If there were a barrier, I wouldn't be going through this now," said Hines, who now takes antidepressants and lives in a residential care home. "I wouldn't have a metal plate in my back."
I'm completely opposed to it. We shouldn't pad the world to prevent death by choice. And there are so many other options, even if the bridge is no longer one. "Oh you're here from Germany to walk on our bridge, eh? Well that'll be about tree-fitty, we have to charge you money to prevent our citizens from offing themselves." Of course, when something impacts your life like this you need a cause to attach yourself to, it's the new human nature. This is the stuff that erects public parks, community centers, laws, and the like.
I'd go on but it would just be the usual libertarian spiel..