Suicide by jumping from height

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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 from a dangerous location, such as from a high window, balcony, or roof, or from a cliff, dam, or bridge, is a common suicide method. The 2023 ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for jumping from a high place is X80*, and this method of suicide is also known clinically as autokabalesis.[1] Many countries have noted suicide bridges such as the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. Other well known suicide sites for jumping include the Eiffel Tower and Niagara Falls.[2]

Nonfatal attempts in these situations can have severe consequences including paralysis, organ damage, broken bones and lifelong pain.[3][4] People have survived falls from buildings as high as 47 floors (500-feet/152.4 metres).[5] Most think that jumping will lead to an instant death but for many death is not instant.[4]

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.[6] 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.[7]

In the United States, jumping is among the least common methods of suicide (less than 2% of all reported suicides in 2005).[8] 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.[9]

Suicide method[edit]

Survivors of falls from hazardous heights are often left with major injuries and permanent disabilities from the impact-related injuries.[10] 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".[11] Almost all falls from beyond about 10 stories are fatal,[12] although people have survived much higher falls than this, even onto hard surfaces. For example, one suicidal jumper has survived a fall from the 39th story of a building,[13] as has a non-suicidal person who accidentally fell from the 47th floor.[5] Suicidal jumpers have sometimes injured or even killed people on the ground whom they land on top of.[14][15][16][17][18]

There is limited information surrounding the demographics of those who die by jumping. However, some studies find differences between those who jump from high-rise residential buildings and those who jump from a suicide bridge. There is some evidence to suggest that younger males are overrepresented in those who jump from bridges, while age is not a notable factor in suicides from high-rise residential buildings.[19] However, other studies have not found the same patterns.[20]

The highest documented suicide jump was by skydiver Charles "Nish" Bruce,[21] who killed himself by leaping without a parachute from an airplane, at an altitude of over 5,000 feet (1,500 m).[22]

Jumping out of a window[edit]

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 dying by suicide (less than 2% of all reported suicides in the United States for 2005).[8]

There is an urban legend in the U.S. that many Wall Street investors autodefenestrated during the 1929 stock market crash.[23] After the stock market collapse of 2008 this was alluded to by protestors brandishing a sign on Wall Street which said: "Jump, you fuckers!"[24]

Prevalence[edit]

Jumping only makes up 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.[citation needed] Jumping makes up 20% of suicides in New York City due to the prevalence of publicly accessible skyscrapers.[25]

In Hong Kong, jumping (from any location) is the most common method of dying by suicide, accounting for 52% of all reported suicide cases in 2006, and similar rates for the years prior to that.[26] 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).[27]

Prevention strategies[edit]

Multiple intervention strategies have been applied for these types of suicides. Some of these strategies take physical forms, such as installing barriers to restrict access at suicide sites or by adding a safety net.[28] In 1996, safety barriers were removed from the Grafton Bridge in Auckland, New Zealand. After their removal, there was a five-fold increase in the number of suicides from the bridge.[29] Other sites have installed signs continuing telephone hotline numbers or incorporated surveillance measures such as patrols and trained gatekeepers.[28]

In addition to these measures, there has been a push to more closely monitor media coverage of suicide, especially suicides from well known sites, which typically involve suicide by jumping.[28] Numerous studies have researched the impact of media coverage on suicide rates.[30] Guidelines for media sources on how to cover the topic, such as the "Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide" (developed in collaboration with organizations such as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the National Institute of Mental Health, and several schools of journalism) attempt to reduce the risk of suicide contagion via responsible reporting, informing on the complexities of suicide, and publicizing resources and stories of hope.[31]

Constructing barriers is not the only option, and it can be expensive.[32] Other method-specific prevention actions include making staff members visible in high-risk areas, using closed-circuit television cameras to identify people in inappropriate places or behaving abnormally (e.g., lingering in a place that people normally spend little time in), and installing awnings and soft-looking landscaping, which deters suicide attempts by making the place look ineffective.[32]

Another factor in reducing jumping deaths is to avoid suggesting in news articles, signs, or other communication that a high-risk place is a common, appropriate, or effective place for dying by jumping from.[32] The efficacy of signage is uncertain, and may depend on whether the wording is simple and appropriate.[32]

Terminology[edit]

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).[33] 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.[citation needed]

The term was brought to prominence in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, in which two hijacked airliners―American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175―were deliberately crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, trapping hundreds in the upper floors of both buildings and setting the impacted floors ablaze. As a direct consequence, more than 200 people plummeted to their deaths from the burning skyscrapers, primarily from the North Tower with only 3 spotted from the South.[34] Most of these people―especially those in the North Tower―deliberately made the decision to die by jumping as a quicker alternative to burning alive or dying from smoke inhalation; however, a small percentage of these deaths were not jumpers but people who accidentally fell.[34] Many of these victims were inadvertently captured on both television and amateur footage, even though television networks reporting on the tragedy attempted to avoid showing people falling to avoid further traumatizing viewers.[35]

See also[edit]

  • 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[36]
  • 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[edit]

  1. ^ "2023 ICD-10-CM Codes X80*: Intentional self-harm by jumping from a high place". www.icd10data.com. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  2. ^ ""Jumping" and Suicide Prevention". Centre for Suicide Prevention.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ a b Bondi, OnScene (2024-01-26). "The other side of suicide". OnScene ACT. Retrieved 2024-03-09.
  5. ^ a b Parke, Caleb (April 22, 2019). "'Thank God for the miracle:' Man who survived 47-story fall from NYC skyscraper recounts story". Fox News.
  6. ^ "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.
  7. ^ "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.
  8. ^ a b "WISQARS Leading Causes of Death Reports". Archived from the original on 2009-08-25. Retrieved 2009-07-06.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ "Attempted Suicide Horrors". Suicide.org!. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ Thompson, Paul (September 1, 2010). "Man survives after 400ft jump by landing on car". Telegraph.
  14. ^ "Teen Dies After Jumping From 7th Floor of Parking Structure at Americana, Landing on Father With Children: Glendale PD". KTLA. April 2, 2019.
  15. ^ "Man who survived woman falling on him from 11th story LA hotel room talks about ordeal". ABC7 Los Angeles. May 19, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
  16. ^ "S. Korea 'suicide' jumper kills man on landing". Thestar.com.my. November 6, 2017.
  17. ^ "Father killed after suicidal student lands on him". The Independent. June 4, 2016. Archived from the original on 2022-05-25.
  18. ^ "Family Stunned by Boy's Suicide Attempt That Killed Driver". NBC Washington.
  19. ^ "APA PsycNet" (PDF). psycnet.apa.org. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  20. ^ Gunnell, D.; Nowers, M. (July 1997). "Suicide by jumping". Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 96 (1): 1–6. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.1997.tb09897.x. ISSN 0001-690X.
  21. ^ Allison, Rebecca (21 June 2002). "Suicide Verdict – Depressed pilot leapt to death". The Guardian.
  22. ^ "SAS Soldier dies in plane plunge". CNN World News. 10 January 2002. Archived from the original on 7 April 2013.
  23. ^ "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.
  24. ^ Linda McQuaig, Neil Brooks (2012). Billionaires' Ball: Gluttony and Hubris in an Age of Epic Inequality. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0807003404.
  25. ^ "NYC #1 in Suicidal Building Jumping". Gothamist. September 7, 2010. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
  26. ^ "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.
  27. ^ 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.
  28. ^ a b c Beautrais, Annette (January 2007). "Suicide by Jumping: A Review of Research and Prevention Strategies". Crisis. 28 (S1): 58–63. doi:10.1027/0227-5910.28.S1.58. ISSN 0227-5910.
  29. ^ Beautrais, Annette L.; Gibb, Sheree J.; Fergusson, David M.; Horwood, L. John; Larkin, Gregory Luke (June 2009). "Removing Bridge Barriers Stimulates Suicides: An Unfortunate Natural Experiment". Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 43 (6): 495–497. doi:10.1080/00048670902873714. ISSN 0004-8674.
  30. ^ Stack, S. (2003-04-01). "Media coverage as a risk factor in suicide". Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. 57 (4): 238–240. doi:10.1136/jech.57.4.238. ISSN 0143-005X. PMC 1732435. PMID 12646535.
  31. ^ "Recommendations". Reporting on Suicide. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  32. ^ a b c d International Parking & Mobility Institute (2019), Suicide in Parking Facilities: Prevention, Response, and Recovery (PDF)
  33. ^ Kemp, Joe (March 20, 2011). "Miracle mom who survived horrific 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire was 'one in a million'". New York Daily News.
  34. ^ a b Flynn, Kevin; Dwyer, Jim (2004-09-10). "Falling Bodies, a 9/11 Image Etched in Pain". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-11-18.
  35. ^ Cauchon, Dennis and Martha Moore (September 2, 2002). "Desperation forced a horrific decision". USAToday. Archived from the original on September 1, 2012. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  36. ^ 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.
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