Has anyone else noticed the cow-catchers they’ve put up recently on the MacDonald bridge? One can only assume this is an effort to prevent suicide jumpers.
Now, I have nothing against this. Those things look very difficult and painful to climb over and I’m sure that if someone has not got the will to continue living, they probably don’t have the will to climb over that aukward shit.
But, the thing is, I noticed that the fences stop part-way across. I had assumed that the renovations were incomplete… until I was biking over the bridge yesterday and I noticed that the protective fence stops exactly at the water’s edge!
This is like the bridge commission is saying, “It’s ok to commit suicide. Just as long as you jump in the water (with the other garbage) so we don’t have to scrape you off our property.”
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.
Thats exactly the reason, except that it isn’t the bridge commission but DND who doesn’t want to scrape drooling carcases off their multi-million dollar war machines. And who knows we could’ve have local al-queda inspired suicide jumpers looking to damage Federal property, if it weren’t for their ingenious fortifications.Just wait until they build that big new sea-fence the Americans are whining about, That is supposed to encompass the whole DND lands (about 1/4 of the waterfront) from water to land… Then we can stop suicidal whales and other marine life from flinging their bodies at our warships too!
Actually, it began with one person throwing a television off the bridge over the DND grounds. After that it was a DVD player. The clean-up concern was over old appliances being tossed for kicks and a slow response time by the Bridge Police to catch the perpetrators. People who want to commit suicide will find a way, and the municipal government knows it. The fence will eventually extend the length of the bridge. The DND only cared enough to foot the bill for the length spanning their grounds. So the “eventually” refers to when the municipal government fits it into the budget.
Mike and Matthew, you’re both (sort of) right. The barrier is part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed against HDBC by DND. The reason the barrier doesn’t go all the way across the bridge is because of weight issues.
Did they at least put the Suicide Help Line phone number on the bridge?
No, but they have those emergency phones on the bridge now.
I noticed this as well..and figured it was perhaps the Shipyard that wanted it there. I wonder how many people jump off that bridge…my balcony faces it..but I havent seen such an attempt.
there is parking right under the bridge for people with DND parking passes, I’d imagine that scraping a body off of a car would kinda suck and that insurance might not cover the damages..