Flashing blue and red lights in our dark hallway are never a good sign. Peered out the front window to see a handful of police cars out on the Ship Canal Bridge. We twittered, asking if anyone knew what was up. @dacort responded:
There was a “Rescue Rope” earlier tonight (http://bit.ly/O0jUg), which usually means somebody was threatening to jump. :-\
The web site he links to is a live feed of 911 activity that includes this line:
| 6/22/2009 8:46:42 PM | F090057597 | A14 A2 B4 B5 DEP1 E8 E9 L6 L7 M18 M44 R1 SAFT2 STAF10 | 801 N 34th St | Rescue Rope |
The second column is the incident number, third column has the units responding.
Cars are gone now, hope everyone’s OK.
Unfortunately someone did jump. I didn’t see anything in the news about it, though I guess that’s not unusual.
There was something on the Seattle livejournal group about it, though I hesitate to link to it since it has its share of pretty insensitive comments. Here’s the most useful one though:
King County’s 24/7/365 crisis hotline is 206 461 3222, toll-free at 866 427 4747.
I was recently told that Seattle’s Aurora Bridge is #2 in the nation for jumpers. I was blown away by that. The Ship Canal can’t be far behind, in that case. An old friend jumped of mine a few years back off the Ship Canal Bridge. We need fences, something, a better deterrent. It’s such an in-the-moment decision that could be reversed. I’m so sad to hear someone else went over.
The WSDOT is taking action. Just a few weeks ago, the City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board approved the WSDOT’s plan for the Aurora Bridge Fence. The link below provides full details, but the project plan calls for awarding a contract for the work by October, with construction starting in 2010.
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr99/aurorabridgefence/
According to a friend who works for a local media company, the local news outlets have a tacit understanding with one another that they won’t cover individual Aurora Bridge suicide attempts so as not to encourage copycats. The coverage a few months back about the guy who jumped/let go after an SPD officer grabbed for his wrist was atypical – probably because of how long it took for events to unfold, and how screwed up traffic was as a result.
@protected static: Noted. Thanks for the heads up. We don’t cover graffiti for this same reason, makes even more sense w/ life and death.