SAN FRANCISCO—A 16 year old male jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge on Wednesday, December 14, around 4:58 p.m. Officials stated that there is little reason to believe he is still alive.
US Coast Guards conducted a two-hour search in an attempt to find the 12th grader after they confirmed they saw a person jump off the bridge. His bag, bicycle, and phone were found in the same location.
The city is currently in the process of building a safety guard around the Golden Gate Bridge since it is a known location where many commit suicide. The project was said to be completed by January 2023 costing about $400 million but new reports indicate that it could take until December 2023. The safety guard is a 20 foot-wide iron mesh net that could potentially cause injury if one were to jump off. The potential injury inflicted is said to prevent those with suicidal tendencies from jumping to their deaths.
According to the Bridge Rail Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that works towards ending suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge, 25 people committed suicide at the bridge last year and nearly 2,000 suicide cases have been reported since the bridge opened in 1937. Between 1937 and 2012, an estimated 1,400 bodies were recovered of people who had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge.
