[Roxy]

Complete chaos on the main road, and bypass which goes to the nearest town, yesterday afternoon.  A 21 year old man was standing on the bridge overlooking the bypass, threatening to jump;  Road was closed for three hours, so you can imagine the backlog of traffic.  Thankfully, he was persuaded to come down.

We have a lot of high bridges here, and sadly, there have been numerous fatalities in the last few years, although, Police have risked their lives on occasions by grabbing people to stop them jumping.

Its so sad that people get so desperate they contemplate doing this .....

[Hatty]

A dark place

[faith0504]

It seems to be happening more and more these days,

[Sandy]

I just hope he saw hope and will not try again. I had a close friend neighbour who kept trying, the last (final) time, I saw her dressed up when I was taking my children to school, I said morning to her and thought it odd for her to be so dressed up so early and some how, looking focused, she was off to meet the London Express train 

A dark place indeed, hope I never see it!!!!

[robert waddell]

when they are successful there particular worries or perceived problems are at an end
whoever they are creating more problems for the train drivers the majority who never go back to work after these incidents
and as a footnote i was working at dunfermline east railway station when a lady on a mission was prevented from her actions 5 min earlier she would have have had a booking with an express train and not the goods train she was intending to utilize

[waterhouse]

I've been at the aftermath of two jumpers.

First one was when I walked onto an empty platform at Belsize Park tube station and there was a train stopped half in the station and a woman underneath.  The solitary station person arrived and there was an agonising wait before the power got turned off while she writhed about uttering odd cries.  The two of us pulled her out - and its really dirty down there - and it turned out she was actually completely unhurt which is more than can be said for the driver, poor sod, who was beyond distraught.  He was completely frozen and couldn't speak. 

The second was on Thameslink where someone got cut in half by the wheels.  In an effort to get the passengers out of the way they vacated the stationary train which was on platform one and moved everyone to platform three where another train was being stopped specially.  Problem was you got a really good view of the corpse from platform 3 so it was like Sandhurst with people passing out everywhere. 

[Fleecewife]

Well said Robert and Waterhouse.  Definitely not fair on others.  I know that when people get to such a horrible place they are beyond thinking of others, and that is perhaps part of their problem - only looking inwards.  Which brings us back to the 'Dignitas' option.  Do you think that we should have something like that here in Britain, even if only to save the train drivers, police and others the horror of finding someone elses aftermath?

I once helped care for someone who had gone under a train.  She lost both legs high on the thighs and one arm - however it was a genuine accident which happened when she was walking with her back to the train too close to the edge when her train came in.  Most of the medics refused to believe that it was an accident but she went on to make a wonderful recovery, had a baby and so on.  So that's a slightly more cheerful tale for my birthday 

[Sandy]

Happy birthday, thanks for that little uplift....just whats needed. 

[robert waddell]

happy birthday fleecewife         is that the party in the broughton brewery

[Rosemary]

Happy birthday 

Our neighbour's father just committed suicide - he was in his nineties and had had enough, although he wasn't terminally ill. Our neighbour wasn't surprised when she found him. Sad but not surprised.

[SallyintNorth]

Happy Birthday Juliet.   

A much happier note for this thread to turn onto. 

[bazzais]

Happy birthday.

I suspect that things like this will become more prevalent with the huge cutbacks to agencies that are supposed to lookout for mental health issues. Preventative actions seems to be at the back of any governments mind at the moment.  No new NHS dentists for checkups, mental health unit cutbacks, state care for the elderly at an all time low, care in the community being passed back to the community often expected to do this as volunteers, youth service cutsbacks with youthclubs closing throughout the UK, community halls and sports fields being sold off or closed and left empty.  Its a dark time indeed.

Baz

[SallyintNorth]

I think the Big Society approach is that by giving people ways in which they can contribute, feel useful and valued, there is less need for preventative measures.

I really really really hope it works.

[smallholder in the city]

Interestingly one of the biggest influences is suicides being shown on TV in soaps / dramas etc. There is usually a linked increase in attempts often mirroring the same method. And a corresponding decrease in difficult times such as wars.

[Sandy]

I hate watching soaps with funerals or dying, it gets me feeling down too, not that TV programmes should not show that sort of thing its more soaps as they act as a bit of light entertainment as oppose to documentaries or news items. My husband had a theory that they put happy stuff on sunday to make families feel comfy and ready for work on Monday!!!! Not sure how that goes when every days the same.