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Are suicides by jumping off bridges preventable?: An analysis of 50 cases from Sweden

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Abstract

This is a community-based sequential case series of 50 individuals who committed suicide by jumping from bridges in two regions of Sweden.

Of the 50 subjects, 32 were men and 18 women, with a median age of 35 years. At least 40 had psychiatric problems. The frequency of suicide was highest during the summer months and during the weekends. A total of 27 bridges were used, with a total length of just under 9 km. Three bridges accounted for almost half of all suicides.

Limiting the availability of one method of committing suicide is reported to reduce the overall suicide rate; why suicide and injury suicide preventive measures might be considered. Since this study demonstrates that few bridges attract suicide candidates, this injury mechanism needs to be acknowledged by the road system owners and included in the safety work.

Section snippets

Background

During the 1990s between 1200 and 1500 individuals committed suicide each year in Sweden (Statistical Yearbook of Sweden, 2002). Individuals who die after jumping from a bridge are not presented separately in the official statistics. However, jumping from a height constitutes approximately 4% of all suicides in Sweden (Statistical Yearbook of Sweden, 2002), England and Wales (Gunnell and Nowers, 1997).

The main focus in Swedish suicide research and prevention is on the identification of

Aims

With this study, we wanted to

  • (i)

    describe the characteristics of individuals who commit suicide by jumping from a bridge;

  • (ii)

    examine where and when this happens; and

  • (iii)

    consider the feasibility of prevention by building barriers at high-risk stretches/places.

Material and methods

The material comprises all 50 registered cases of suicide by jumping from bridges from 1983 to 1997 in two regions of Sweden; an urban and rural southwestern area with a population of 770,000 inhabitants (including the city of Gothenburg and the county of Bohuslän) and a rural region comprising 900,000 inhabitants of the four northernmost counties of Sweden.

The cases were identified by a manual and computerized search of all death certificates issued at the Departments of Forensic Medicine in

Results

Thirty-two victims (64%) were men and 18 (36%) were women. Their ages varied between 16 and 83 years with median and mean ages of 35 and 40 years, respectively. The average incidence was 0.2 per 100,000 inhabitants per year.

At least 32 of the 50 individuals had been treated in a psychiatric clinic and in an additional eight cases, information suggestive of mental health problems was retrieved through the police investigations. At the time of the suicide, at least 17 people were receiving

Discussion

In a total stretch of less than 9 km bridge roadway, 50 people committed suicide during a 15 year period. This represents minimum figures, since it is possible that actual suicides are classified as accidents or as undetermined manner of death. Three bridges attracted considerably more victims than the others. As in other studies (Nowers and Gunnell, 1996, Rosen, 1975, Shah and Ganesvaran, 1999), many of the suicide victims had their residence in the vicinity of the bridge, or were inpatients in

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