![]() Jay Ruderman: So let’s start on the day that you thought was going to be the end of your life. Kevin Hines: Thank you for having me, Jay. Kevin is now a mental health activist and best selling author who travels the world telling a story of hope, healing and recovery. Miraculously he survived the 220′ jump thanks to a series of contributing factors which included a sea lion keeping him afloat until the Coast Guard arrived. He could not stop listening to voices inside his head that told him to take his own life. A couple years prior, Kevin had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was dealing with serious sycosis at the time of his suicide attempt. On Septemone of those attempts was a 19 year old Kevin Hines. Since 1937 almost 2,000 people have tried to take their own life by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Jay Ruderman: Hi, I’m Jay Ruderman and this is All Inclusive, a podcast focused on inclusion, innovation and social justice. Suicide sites develop a certain magnetism, and no site is more beautiful or has drawn more depressed and suicidal people to it than the Golden Gate Bridge.Speaker 1: All Inclusive, a podcast on inclusion, innovation and social justice, with Jay Ruderman. The setting and dark history of the bridge were the final lure. The fact that there was easy access-parking lots at both ends of the bridge, a pedestrian walkway that was open year-round, and a railing that was only four-feet-high-aided their decision. Also, loved ones would be spared the horror of finding their bodies. They said they chose the bridge thinking that it would be a quick and near-certain way to die. Most survivors of a jump have been young-in their teens or early twenties. It was the Golden Gate Bridge or nothing. In addition, they didn’t have a backup plan for killing themselves. Nearly every one said afterward that they wanted to live as soon as they went over the side. Their last few seconds are filled with terror and agonizing pain as their bodies are broken and internal organs are shattered.Ī handful of people-fewer than 35-have survived a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge. Most die on impact, but 5 percent survive the fall and end up drowning. Jumpers fall 220 feet in four seconds at a speed of 75 miles per hour-equivalent to a pedestrian being struck by a car that is traveling that fast. ![]() According to a 15-year report that the coroner’s office released, the most common occupation of Golden Gate Bridge jumpers is student. ![]() The Marin County Coroner’s Office is responsible for handling the deaths of most Golden Gate Bridge jumpers because the Coast Guard station that retrieves nearly all of the bodies is in Marin County. Less than 8 percent are from out of state or abroad. The average age of Golden Gate Bridge jumpers is under 40, and more than 10 percent are in their teens.ĭespite the common belief that people come from all over the world to jump from the Golden Gate Bridge, in fact 85 percent of bridge jumpers live within an hour’s drive of the bridge, and 92 percent live in California. Other means such as pills, hanging, and jumps are less common, but by no means rare.īridge jumpers in general are younger than people who kill themselves by other means, and this is true for the Golden Gate Bridge as well. The majority of Americans who die by suicide-more than 60 percent-use a firearm. By comparison, about 18,000 people in this country are murdered annually. More than 40,000 people die by suicide in the United States every year. Golden Gate Bridge Suicides - Demographics ![]()
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