Metro Vancouver police chiefs call for suicide-prevention barriers on bridges
Local police chiefs are calling for suicide-prevention measures to be added to two bridges over the Fraser River.
Delta
police Chief Neil Dubord said officers are called to the Alex Fraser
Bridge on average once a week to respond to possible suicide attempts.
“One
of the things that we are very interested in is trying to look at
systems that will allow us to be proactive for people who are in
crisis,” Dubord said.
Dubord said there is a staff
sergeant working on having phone boxes installed on the Alex Fraser so
that people in crisis can reach a counsellor right away or a bystander
can call for help. Beyond that, he said, Delta police would like to see
some kind of suicide-prevention barrier on the bridge, whether it’s
fencing like on the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge or netting similar to
what is in the works for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
“There’s
all kinds of risk for both the person who is in crisis and our officers
as well, and we’re trying to mitigate that as best we can,” Dubord
said.
New
Westminster police Chief Const. Dave Jones is advocating for barriers
to be added to the Pattullo when it’s replaced because of the frequency
with which police are called to incidents on the bridge — every week —
and how easy it is to access from populated areas in Surrey and New
Westminster. New West cops also have a boat that provides support when
there are incidents at nearby bridges.
“It happens too often,” he said.
Although
it would be nice to have suicide-prevention measures before the new
bridge is built, Jones said he realizes that it’s not feasible
engineering-wise. Instead, he will concentrate on lobbying to ensure the
new bridge includes barriers.
“We understand that
TransLink is looking at it within a new bridge structure, but we want to
make sure this is a measure that is not cut from it,” he said.
According
to figures from the B.C. Coroners Service, between 2006 and 2015, 2,738
people committed suicide in the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal health
authorities. Vancouver and Surrey had the highest number of suicides
during that 10-year period.
B.C.-wide, 459 people committed suicide by fall or jump.
Almost
10 years ago, a provincial coroner’s report recommended that barriers
be installed on five Metro Vancouver bridges: Ironworkers Memorial,
Burrard, Granville, Lions Gate and Pattullo.
The
province added barriers to the Ironworkers bridge two years ago and the
City of Vancouver put them on the Burrard Bridge last year. The barriers
cost $10 million and $3.5 million, respectively.
According to the B.C. Ministry of Transportation,
barriers can’t be added to the Lions Gate, Port Mann and Alex Fraser
because they can’t accommodate the additional wind load.
Instead,
emergency phone boxes have been added to the Lions Gate and Port Mann.
When asked if there are plans to explore other suicide-prevention
methods on provincial bridges, a spokesperson said they couldn’t speak
to future plans because of the current political uncertainty.
Wind
load also prevents the installation of barriers on the existing
Pattullo Bridge. TransLink spokesman Chris Bryan said suicide-prevention
barriers will be included on the replacement bridge, which is expected
to be complete by 2023. The cost of installing the barriers hasn’t been
determined. The Golden Ears Bridge, another TransLink structure, was
built with higher railings and phone boxes.
The City of
Vancouver said it will investigate the option of fencing on bridges
other than the Burrard “at such time when major upgrades for these
assets are in the capital schedule.”
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