Suicide by jumping from height

Jumping from a dangerous location, such as from a high window, balcony, or roof, or from a cliff, dam, or bridge, is an often used suicide method in some countries. Many countries have noted suicide bridges such as the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge (China) and the Golden Gate Bridge (US). Other well known suicide sites for jumping from include the Eiffel Tower (France) and Niagara Falls (Canada).[1] Nonfatal attempts in these situations can have severe consequences including paralysis, organ damage, and broken bones.[2]

As a suicide prevention initiative, signs on the Golden Gate Bridge promote special telephones that connect to a crisis hotline, as well as a 24/7 crisis text line.

Jumping is the most common method of suicide in Hong Kong, accounting for 52.1% of all reported suicide cases in 2006 and similar rates for the years before that.[3] The Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of the University of Hong Kong believes that it may be due to the abundance of easily accessible high-rise buildings in Hong Kong.[4]

In the United States, jumping is among the least common methods of suicide (less than 2% of all reported suicides in 2005).[5] However, in a 75-year period to 2012, there had been around 1,400 suicides at the Golden Gate Bridge. In New Zealand, secure fencing at the Grafton Bridge substantially reduced the rate of suicides.[6]

Suicide method

Survivors of falls from hazardous heights are often left with major injuries and permanent disabilities from the impact-related injuries.[7] A frequent scenario is that the jumper will sit on an elevated highway or building-ledge as police attempt to talk them down. Observers sometimes encourage potential jumpers to jump, an effect known as "suicide baiting".[8] Almost all falls from beyond about 10 stories are fatal,[9] although people have survived much higher falls than this, even onto hard surfaces. For example, one suicidal jumper has survived a fall from the 25th story of a building,[10] as has a non-suicidal person who accidentally fell from the 47th floor.[11] Suicidal jumpers have sometimes injured or even killed people on the ground who they land on top of.[12][13][14][15][16]

The highest documented suicide jump was by skydiver Charles "Nish" Bruce,[17] who killed himself by leaping without a parachute from an airplane, at an altitude of over 5,000 feet (1,500 m).[18]

Jumping out of a window

Autodefenestration (or self-defenestration) is the term used for the act of jumping, propelling oneself, or causing oneself to fall, out of a window. This phenomenon played a notable role in such events as the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1911, the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center, and other disasters. It is also a method of suicide. In the United States, self-defenestration is among the least common methods of committing suicide (less than 2% of all reported suicides in the United States for 2005).[5]

There is an urban legend in the U.S. that many Wall Street investors auto defenestrated during the 1929 stock market crash.[19] After the stock market collapse of 2008 this was alluded to by protestors brandishing a sign on Wall Street which said: "Jump, you fuckers!"[20]

Prevalence

Jumping makes up only 3% of suicides in the US and Europe, which is a much smaller percentage than is generally perceived by the public. Jumping is surprisingly infrequent because tall buildings are often condo or office buildings not accessible to the general public, and because open-air areas of high buildings (i.e. rooftop restaurants or pools) are often surrounded by high walls that are built precisely to prevent suicides. Jumping makes up 20% of suicides in New York City due to the prevalence of publicly accessible skyscrapers.[21]

In Hong Kong, jumping (from any location) is the most common method of committing suicide, accounting for 52% of all reported suicide cases in 2006, and similar rates for the years prior to that.[22] The Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of the University of Hong Kong believes that it may be due to the abundance of easily accessible high-rise buildings in Hong Kong (implying that much of the jumping is out of windows or from roof tops).[23]

Most frequently used locations
This section is an excerpt from List of suicide sites § Most frequently used locations.[edit]
  • Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, Nanjing, China – more than 2,000 suicides from 1968 to 2006[24]
  • Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California, United States – more than 1,600 known suicides;[25][26][27] the number is believed to be higher because of people whose bodies were never found.[28]
  • Prince Edward Viaduct, Toronto, Ontario, Canada – 492 suicides before the Luminous Veil, a barrier of 9,000 steel rods, was constructed in 2003.[29]
  • Aokigahara forest, Mount Fuji, Japan – as many as 105 suicides a year,[30] though the number may be higher.[31]
  • The Gap, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia – a large sea cliff with roughly 50 suicides a year

Terminology

In the United States, jumper is a term used by the police and media organizations for a person who plans to fall or jump (or already has fallen or jumped) from a potentially deadly height, sometimes with the intention to die by suicide, at other times to escape conditions inside (e.g. a burning building).[32] It includes all those who jump, regardless of motivation or consequences. That is, it includes people making sincere suicide attempts, those making parasuicidal gestures, people BASE jumping from a building illegally, and those attempting to escape conditions that they perceive as posing greater risk than would the fall from a jump, and it applies whether or not the fall is fatal.

The term was brought to prominence in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, in which approximately 200 people at the point of impact (or trapped above the point of impact) in the North and South towers of the World Trade Center jumped to escape the fire and the smoke caused by the direct impact of Flights 11 and 175. Many of these jumpers were inadvertently captured on both television and amateur footage, even though television networks reporting on the tragedy attempted to avoid showing the jumpers falling to avoid further traumatizing viewers.

See also
  • The Bridge (2006), documentary film about jumpers on the Golden Gate Bridge
  • The Falling Man, iconic photograph of one of the hundreds of casualties of the September 11 attack victims who fell or jumped from the burning World Trade Center[33]
  • Lover's Leap, nickname for many scenic heights with the risk of a fatal fall and the possibility of a deliberate jump
  • Suicide barrier, access-control fence erected at certain high places to deter jumpers
  • Suicide bridge, particular bridges favored by jumpers

References
  1. ""Jumping" and Suicide Prevention". Centre for Suicide Prevention.
  2. Koopman, John (November 2, 2005). "LETHAL BEAUTY / No easy death: Suicide by bridge is gruesome, and death is almost certain. The fourth in a seven-part series on the Golden Gate Bridge barrier debate". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
  3. "Method Used in Completed Suicide". HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, University of Hong Kong. 2006. Archived from the original on 10 September 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
  4. "遭家人責罵：掛住上網媾女唔讀書 成績跌出三甲 中四生跳樓亡". Apple Daily. 9 August 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
  5. "WISQARS Leading Causes of Death Reports". Archived from the original on 2009-08-25. Retrieved 2009-07-06.
  6. Havârneanu, GM; Burkhardt, JM; Paran, F (August 2015). "A systematic review of the literature on safety measures to prevent railway suicides and trespassing accidents". Accident Analysis and Prevention. 81: 30–50. doi:10.1016/j.aap.2015.04.012. PMID 25939134.
  7. "Attempted Suicide Horrors". Suicide.org!. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
  8. Mann, L. (1981). "The baiting crowd in episodes of threatened suicide". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 41 (4): 703–9. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.41.4.703. PMID 7288565.
  9. Weckbach, Sebastian; Flierl, Michael A; Blei, Michael; Burlew, Clay Cothren; Moore, Ernest E; Stahel, Philip F (October 25, 2011). "Survival following a vertical free fall from 300 feet: The crucial role of body position to impact surface". Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine. 19: 63. doi:10.1186/1757-7241-19-63. PMC 3212924. PMID 22027092.
  10. Thompson, Paul (September 1, 2010). "Man survives after 400ft jump by landing on car". Telegraph.co.uk.
  11. Parke, Caleb (April 22, 2019). "'Thank God for the miracle:' Man who survived 47-story fall from NYC skyscraper recounts story". Foxnews.com.
  12. "Teen Dies After Jumping From 7th Floor of Parking Structure at Americana, Landing on Father With Children: Glendale PD". Ktla.com. April 2, 2019.
  13. "Man who survived woman falling on him from 11th story LA hotel room talks about ordeal". Abc7.com. May 19, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
  14. "S. Korea 'suicide' jumper kills man on landing". Thestar.com.my. November 6, 2017.
  15. "Father killed after suicidal student lands on him". The Independent. June 4, 2016. Archived from the original on 2022-05-25.
  16. "Family Stunned by Boy's Suicide Attempt That Killed Driver". Nbcwashington.com.
  17. Allison, Rebecca (21 June 2002). "Suicide Verdict – Depressed pilot leapt to death". The Guardian.
  18. "SAS Soldier dies in plane plunge". CNN World News. 10 January 2002. Archived from the original on 7 April 2013.
  19. "After the 1929 stock market crash, did investors really jump out of windows?". straightdope.com. 30 August 2002. Archived from the original on 21 March 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  20. Linda McQuaig, Neil Brooks (2012). Billionaires' Ball: Gluttony and Hubris in an Age of Epic Inequality. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0807003404.
  21. "NYC #1 in Suicidal Building Jumping". Gothamist. September 7, 2010. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
  22. "Method Used in Completed Suicide". HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, University of Hong Kong. 2006. Archived from the original on 2009-09-10. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
  23. 周志鴻; 譚健文 (9 August 2009). "遭家人責罵：掛住上網媾女唔讀書 成績跌出三甲 中四生跳樓亡". Apple Daily. Archived from the original on 15 March 2010. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
  24. 长江大桥成自杀圣地 专家建议装尼龙防护网 Archived 6 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  25. Bateson, John (May 25, 2012). "The Golden Gate Bridge's fatal flaw". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 18, 2013. Since it opened on May 27, 1937, there have been an estimated 1,600 deaths in which the body was recovered
  26. Bone, James (13 October 2008). "The Times" (ECE). New York. Retrieved 23 October 2008.
  27. Melina, Remy (April 19, 2011). "How Did Teen Survive Fall from Golden Gate Bridge?". Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  28. "A barrier to hopeless souls". Baltimore Sun. 17 March 2014. Archived from the original on 17 March 2014.
  29. Lah, Kyung (19 March 2009). "Desperate Japanese head to 'suicide forest'". CNN.com/Asia. Retrieved 10 April 2012. 'Especially in March, the end of the fiscal year, more suicidal people will come here because of the bad economy,' he said. 'It's my dream to stop suicides in this forest, but to be honest, it would be difficult to prevent all the cases here.'
  30. Adelstein, Jake (2 Jan 2018). "The YouTuber who filmed Japan's 'suicide forest' may have done something good". The Washington Post.
  31. Kemp, Joe (March 20, 2011). "Miracle mom who survived horrific 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire was 'one in a million'". New York Daily News.
  32. Koopman, John; Writer, Chronicle Staff (November 2, 2005). "LETHAL BEAUTY / No easy death: Suicide by bridge is gruesome, and death is almost certain. The fourth in a seven-part series on the Golden Gate Bridge barrier debate". Sfgate.com.
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