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Cold Spring suicides increasing; 7 in 2009 are most in any year

By Samantha Yale Scroggin/Staff Writer

The Cold Spring Canyon Bridge towers above a picturesque gorge in the Santa Ynez Valley, offering a panoramic view of the surrounding peaks and a means to avoid the narrow and winding former stagecoach route in the rugged canyon below.

But despite its tranquil beauty, the bridge has a dark history, and its story has grown even darker this year.

Since its completion in 1963, the span on Highway 154 has been the place where 51 people have taken their own lives.

In 2009, more people have used the bridge to commit suicide than in any other year. The latest tragedy occurred Oct. 27, when a North Hollywood man apparently jumped off the bridge. He was identified as David Larson Mayer, 58.

Two weeks before that death, a 26-year-old Santa Barbara man was found dead below the bridge on Oct. 13. He was the third person to die by jumping off the bridge in the prior 10 days, according to Drew Sugars, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.

In addition, on Sept. 30, deputies were able to convince a person not to leap from the bridge, but later in the day someone else did kill himself there.

Seven people have committed suicide off the bridge so far this year, which is the most for any single year since the structure opened, Sugars said. No one is believed to have survived a leap from the bridge.

Sheriff Bill Brown said that the four suicides in 2008 was tied with a previous year for the second-most deaths.

“We’ve seen a 50 percent increase so far this year,” he added.

Several people close to the issue suggested that the high number of suicides could be the result of the tough economy, the lack of a physical barrier on the sides of the bridge, and publicity about the people who have taken their own lives.

“Sadly, I think there’s been a lot of focus on the bridge because of the project,” Brown said, referring to a plan to build a suicide-prevention barrier along the sides of the 1,200-foot-long bridge. The structure stands more than 400 feet above Cold Spring Canyon.

The barrier project was proposed by Caltrans, and is expected to cost between $2.5 million and

$3 million — money that would come from the local portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Construction is expected to begin next summer, according to Caltrans, despite a pending lawsuit filed by a bridge-barrier opponent group, Friends of the Cold Spring Canyon Bridge, challenging the project’s environmental impact report.

“It’s very hard to tell” why there has been an increase in leaps from the bridge, said Lisa Firestone, a psychologist and research and education director at the Glendon Association, a Santa Barbara-based group dedicated to addressing social problems including suicide.

To some degree, she said, that’s because she does not know much about those who killed themselves.

“I think it’s partly because of the notoriety it’s gotten,” Firestone said.

She said that it’s important to get barriers up on the bridge as soon as possible because she believes they will save lives.

“Most other methods of suicide just aren’t that lethal,” Firestone said.

“These are valuable members of our society that we’re losing,” she added.

Sheriff Brown and the Glendon Association are proponents of putting barriers on the bridge, but the project has faced opposition as well.

Marc McGinnes, a member of Friends of the Cold Spring Canyon Bridge, asserts that research shows physical barriers alone do not stop suicides, but rather divert the problem elsewhere.

“Without the crucial element of human intervention, barriers alone are

ineffective,” McGinnes said.

He said that he believes media coverage of the deaths is a problem.

“We have told the sheriff before that this is copy-cat behavior inducing to write press releases,” McGinnes said.

Brown noted that deputies frequently patrol the bridge, but they can’t be there all the time.

“We have very few deputies and a lot of area to cover,” he said.

Deputies have training in suicide intervention and dealing with people with suicidal tendencies, Brown said.

He encourages anyone who sees suspicious activity on the bridge to call

9-1-1 as soon as possible.

California Highway Patrol Officer Larry Hockman likewise said that his agency’s officers cross the bridge as part of their Highway 154 patrols.

“We stop for any vehicle that’s on the side of the road, no matter where it is,” he said.

When CHP officers get a call of someone who might jump from the bridge, they get there as soon as possible, Hockman added, and if possible “just try and get them down.”

Brown said bridge suicides are especially difficult and traumatic for search-and-rescue team volunteers, who face the grim task of recovering the bodies.

“They’re in the business of trying to save lives,” he said.

Firestone said the bridge suicides and attempts can affect many people be-yond the troubled individual, including passersby who see someone jump, law-enforcement personnel working to rescue

people who are trying to end their lives, and the search-and-rescue team members who navigate treacherous terrain to do the physically dangerous and emotionally upsetting job of retrieving mangled bodies.

“A lot of other people get traumatized in the process,” she added.

Brown urged anyone who is despondent to reach out and get help, noting that a lot of assistance is available.

“Suicide is really the permanent answer to a temporary problem,” he said.

Advice onprevention

Suicidal thinking is usually associated with problems that can be treated, according to the American Association of Suicidology.

Association officials say that anyone considering suicide, or people who know someone who appears to be considering it, should also know that:

If someone is unable to think of solutions other than suicide, it does not mean that other solutions don’t exist.

Suicidal crises are almost always a temporary situation.

Problems are usually not as large as they first seem.

Reasons for living can help sustain someone in pain.

Suicidal thoughts should not be kept to oneself.

According to the association, anyone who sees someone exhibit any of the following behaviors should seek immediate help for that person:

Threatening to hurt or kill oneself, or just talking about wanting to do so.

Looking for ways to kill oneself by seeking access to firearms, pills or other means.

Talking or writing about death, dying or suicide, when these actions are unusual for the person.

For more information on suicide prevention, visit the American Association of Suicidology at

www.suicidology.org.

To get help locally:

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, free of charge and available any time: 1-800-273-TALK.

To reach health and human services in Santa Barbara County for suicide prevention, crisis intervention and other help, also free of charge any time, dial 2-1-1.