A-2 THE NEW MEXICAN Monday, October 4, 2010

NATION&WORLD
In brief
Brazil election
forced into runoff
SAO PAULO — Official vote returns
indicate Brazil’s leading presidential
candidate Dilma Rousseff has been
forced into a second-round runoff.
Rousseff is the hand-chosen succes-
sor to popular President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva. To win, a candidate
needs to win 50 percent plus one vote.
Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court
reports Sunday that with 97.5 percent
of the votes counted, Rousseff needs
3.4 percent for a first-round win, put-
ting an outright win out of her reach.
Rousseff will face her centrist Jose
Serra in the Oct. 31 runoff. Serra has
32.8 percent with nearly all ballots in.

Police: Oil tankers

attacked in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD — Suspected mili-
tants attacked and set fire to about
20 tankers carrying oil for NATO and
U.S. troops in Afghanistan on Mon-
day, the third such strike inside Paki-
stan in as many days, police said.
The attack took place on a supply
line that has been closed by Pakistani The George Washington Bridge in New York is the spot where 10 people have committed suicide in 2010. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
authorities in protest at a NATO heli-
copter attack that killed three Paki-

Public suicide a growing problem

stan troops on the border last week.
It will raise the stakes in the clo-
sure, which has exacerbated tensions
between Washington and Islamabad
but has been welcomed by Islamist
groups opposed to Pakistan’s support
of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
Police officer Umer Hayat said two
people were killed in the attack close
to the capital Islamabad by what
he called “terrorists.” The attack-
ers opened fire on trucks that were
parked at a poorly guarded terminal
before setting them afire, he and
other officers said.
The trucks were en route or wait-
ing to travel to the Torkham border
crossing along the fabled Khyber
Pass, which is used to bring fuel,
military vehicles, spare parts, cloth-
ing and other non-lethal supplies for
foreign troops in Afghanistan.
100-year-old time
capsule spoiled
PITTSBURGH — Western Penn-
sylvania officials were hoping for a
grand unveiling of a century-old time
capsule over the weekend, but they
say both the capsule and their plans
were spoiled.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says
the copper container was removed
from the cornerstone of the 100-year-
old Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall
& Museum in the Oakland section
of Pittsburgh last week. But inside,
officials found 11 cents in change,
two lead soldiers, a tattered silk flag
— and rotted news pulp, Confederate
currency and photographs.
The lid of the cornerstone was
apparently never soldered shut, so
After two N.Y. jumps, authorities
seek to prevent landmark deaths
By Cristian Salazar
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Eighteen-year-old Tyler Clem-
enti typed his intention to millions on the Internet:
“Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.” His body was
found days later floating in the Hudson River
beneath the George Washington Bridge.
Chef Joseph Cerniglia, a contestant on the cook-
ing show Kitchen Nightmares, also jumped from the
iconic bridge in the past two weeks. His restaurant
was mired in debt, though it was making a comeback.
In March, Yale University student Cameron
Dabaghi jumped from the Empire State Building’s
86th-floor observation deck. He had written a
note beforehand saying he was sorry and would
be jumping from either the George Washington
Bridge or the totemic skyscraper.
Those who choose to end their lives in public,
dramatic fashion often pick landmarks — from the
George Washington Bridge overlooking Manhattan
and the Palisades, to the Golden Gate Bridge, with
its sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean and the
San Francisco Bay. Authorities are looking at how
to prevent the public deaths with everything from
concrete barriers, suicide hot line phones or safety
nets hanging from bridges.
The measures would have made a difference for
Kevin Hines, who survived a leap from the
746-foot Golden Gate Bridge in 2000.
“I would never have jumped off that bridge” if he
found obstructions in the way, he said.
In New York, few city landmarks with the poten-
tial to become suicide hot spots are as accessible as
the George Washington Bridge, which has a pedes-
trian path and a low railing.
The Empire State Building has a 10-foot-high
safety fence and an abundance of security guards,
but more than 30 people have leaped from it to
their deaths since it opened in 1931. The Brooklyn
Bridge, which also has seen fatal jumps this year,
has an easy-to-get-to pedestrian walkway, but it
hangs over lanes of vehicle traffic rather than water.
New York City police responded to over
640 reports of people either jumping or threaten-
ing to jump from buildings or bridges as of Aug. 31,
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said — a 27 per-
cent increase over the same period last year.
The police have officers trained to talk down
and grab would-be jumpers and deploy air bags in
the streets to catch people threatening to jump.
A dozen telephones are installed along the
pedestrian walkways on the George Washington
Bridge that patch potential jumpers through to sui-
cide hot lines. The phones are near signs that say,
“Need help?” in both English and Spanish.
Dr. John Draper, project director of the National
Suicide Prevention Hot Line in New York, says a
simple concrete barrier is a much better suicide
deterrent on a bridge than a telephone.
“We’ve seen on bridges that people don’t really
call hot lines in high numbers,” he said.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey,
which owns the bridge, would not release informa-
tion on the number of people who have jumped
from the span, saying it’s impossible to determine
the exact count. But Port Authority spokesman
Steve Sigmund said the agency is “continuing
to partner with mental health experts to further
strengthen” its prevention efforts.
Psychologists who study suicide say the land-
marks can become attractive ways out for emo-
tionally disturbed people wanting to die.
“When they think about dying in this way, they
may have some degree of magical thinking, know-
ing that it is very likely their death will get public-
ity and media attention,” said Dr. Alan L. Berman,
executive director of the Washington-based Amer-
ican Association of Suicidology.
Hines, now 29, who suffers from bipolar disor-
der, told The Associated Press that he had believed
the jump would be less painful than other forms
of death, and less frightening than taking pills. He
decided after doing research on the Internet that
“the only option was a bridge.”
By conservative estimates, 1,300 people have
jumped to their deaths from the Golden Gate
Bridge since it opened in 1937. At least 29 people
leaped last year, and eight have committed suicide
there through July this year, according to bridge
officials. Transportation authorities voted two
years ago to hang stainless steel nets from the
bridge to deter suicides, although funding for the
$50 million project remains elusive.
Most jumpers suffer a grisly death, with massive
internal injuries, broken bones and skull fractures.
Some die from internal bleeding. Others asphyxi-
ate from drowning.
Hines said his leap was anything but painless.
“This image that you just free-fall into an abyss
is just a joke,” he said.
Draper, of the suicide hot line network, said that
popular opinion aside, research shows that barriers
making the jumps from high places impossible will
prevent the public suicides.
“Many people are under the impression that if you
just put up a barrier they will find another way to kill
themselves. It’s an argument that people will make
against putting up a barrier,” Draper says. “And it’s
myth.”

“ When they think about dying in this way, they may have some degree of magical
moisture got in. Museum officials
plan to next year entomb a new cap-
sule to be opened by Pittsburghers of
the early 22nd century.
thinking, knowing that it is very likely their death will get publicity and media attention.”
The Associated Press Dr. Alan L. Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology

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