I dont get it...

[Mamasita]

We were driving home this afternoon and we drove over this bridge here in melb called the westgate bridge that is over 850 metres high. every week there is at least ONE suicide, where one person pulls over and leaps off. The media is forbidden from publicising this of course as they dont want to give out any more inspiration to those feeling fragile.

 

Now i absolutely crap my dacks on this bridge as it is, i mean this bridge is so long and high it shakes and sways in the wind, if u get out of your car u can feel this mammoth bridge swaying and it does NOT feel safe (it is... but its totally scary). I hate to pull over... looking over the edge, the idea of climbing off and jumping to a certain death... WOW... how would u get the balls to do such a thing? where does that courage come from? and if someone had so much courage to do something so horrifically scary... why dont they have the courage to fix what is wrong? takes less balls to do that then to jump i think.

[pizzachick13]

I suppose the courage comes from knowing that all the pain and suffering you may have will be all over for you. The thought that it could all stop is more powerful than the urge to fix it.

 

I've felt this way before and I've even thought of jumping off the Westgate, but I think my urge to live is far greater than my urge to die.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Sappho...

[Stari]

why dont they have the courage to fix what is wrong?

 

Because they have lost hope that they can improve their situation and living without this improvement feels too hard to cope with in the long run.

[devastation]

The westgate is nothing compared to the wolrd fourth or fifth longest bridge(13.5km) that i used to drive on regularly(not anymore as i am not staying in another country) , The Penang Bridge linking the city of Georgetown on Penang Island and the city of Butterworth on Peninsular Malaysia. Suicides on the middle span are too common and it received a lot of press coverage. The sucess rate will always be 100% as the bridge is more than 10 stories high in the middle section to facilitate ships from the port. thereforeeee, a person who jumped will be at least 6 km from the nearest shore which makes a rescue operation improbable. Furthremore, a passerby will not intervene because it is eqally suicidal to jump from that height(all suicides happened late at night anyway because the bridge is a carpark during the day). I've thought about that many times when i drove through that bridge but at the same time drowning might to too painful to endure.

[TiredMan]

I wouldn't say they don't have the courage. What if they TRIED for many years to fix things? What if they don't have family they can trust because they were abused by them? No real friends? No job because of health reasons? Basically many days can go by before they even see anyone and that is only if they walk outside? No one calls them at all to see how they are? Perhaps a debilitating illness of some sort?

 

I think suicide is a very major thing and not a decision to be taken lightly. But, for some people, the situations are so unbearable that I wouldn't call them cowards.

[darkblue]

I agree with TiredMan.

You are generalizing suicides when you know nothing of their origins, or struggles.

[neva_black_n_white]

I can see your point. I mean from what you can see theres either the world and what it has to offer or the SCARY BRIDGE! But i guess its not that simple, a lot of people have a lot of things going on in their life, as do you, but sometimes the options that seem wise and fulfilling to them arent going to be the same as yours. Im not saying that i promote suicide at all, because I dont, but i think i can relate. I understand the feeling of going for what would stereotypically be seen as the negative/wrong/painful even, option just because that is the right (and often thought to be the only0 road. Suicide is a powerful thing, and for some its the only power they obtain (if that makes sense). Sometimes their life is no longer under their control (as they see it). I mean in my time ive been known to be a "snap out of it" "lifes better than what you think, pick up a hobby" kind of girl, but thats being naive. Life can be cruel and sometimes the help isnt there to help others, or atleast its not seeked.

 

Im not sure if im making a point here so im going to round it up.

thats my two cence. kell.

[Dako]

In my town a mere 200 foot tall bridge attracts suicidal people on a regular basis. At the speed you gather on the way down, water is quite hard, almost like pavement.

Although not dramatically high, the harbor police who collect the bodies report that the impact with the water often mangles the person in stange ways. Some come apart in pieces or are split up the middle, Autopsies sometimes find the person had lived way past impact to die in a less than dignified way. Others float there with a broken neck until a speedboat runs them over.

 

I know these things because a very close friend works in that section of the harbor and has to make room for the harbor police to pick up the pieces. The newspaper fails to publish the grisly photos.

 

Not to be a complete killjoy, but maybe some folks might benefit by seeing a corpse up close. It does make death seem less appealing.

Just a thought.

[darkblue]

Not to be a complete killjoy, but maybe some folks might benefit by seeing a corpse up close. It does make death seem less appealing.

 

I doubt suicidal people think that death is appealing.

The images of death are disturbing.

The concept of not having their lives anymore; would be the appealing factor.

[TiredMan]

 

Not to be a complete killjoy, but maybe some folks might benefit by seeing a corpse up close. It does make death seem less appealing.

Just a thought.

 

Well with that logic, if I showed you where a hamburger or steak comes from, you would probably find it less appealing as well. Or what undigest food looks like in the stomach, you might eat A LOT less. Or what a cigarette does, or air pollution inside one's body and so forth.

 

I think people take this option when they feel they have no other path. As I said earlier, I wouldn't call people cowards. Some situations truly ARE horrid and a person should have the choice to do what they want with their life.

[Dako]

Well with that logic, if I showed you where a hamburger or steak comes from, you would probably find it less appealing as well. Or what undigest food looks like in the stomach, you might eat A LOT less. Or what a cigarette does, or air pollution inside one's body and so forth.

 

I think people take this option when they feel they have no other path. As I said earlier, I wouldn't call people cowards. Some situations truly ARE horrid and a person should have the choice to do what they want with their life.

 

As a vegetarian, that's logical to me.

Believe me, I understand being driven to the edge by a lack of options first hand. At that point, death was certainly appealing to me, and I feel its a personal choice that should be respected.

 

I'm not recommending a field trip to the morgue, just expressing an aversion to considering death only in the abstract.

[sparticuss]

Rode a motorbike over that bridge today. Toy Run!

 

As the bridge collapsed while under construction killing 37 workers I don't blame you being scared of it. Even though the cause of the collapse was the shearing of a couple of tempoary support bolts which play no part in the structural support of the thing now.

 

Quite frankly my biggest fear up there is that the strong winds will blow me and my motorbike under a tailgaiting truck. And I have stopped up there to help stranded cars and bikes. Gives me an excuseto take in the view.

It isn't just the Westgate jumpers that the press is not allowed to release. Almost all suicides are banned from the Australian media. The occasional teen suicide which will open public purse strings for charity is allowed but thats it.

The political backlash about a body count greater than the national road toll, and completely covered up would bring down any government.

 

I would guess that the jumpers are as far beyond fear as they are beyond hope.

 

Even though the police wont release data and the press wont publish it the suicide studies department a Griffith Uni in Brisbane can be contacted for any info.

 

One thing that I can tell you. Most of the things that trigger the Westgate jumps are not something that the jumpers can fix, no matter how much courage they have.

 

PM me if you want the real reasons for the jumps.