what to do when someone wants to jump off a bridge?

[luv2liv]

yesterday, on the way home i saw someone was about to jump off the bridge. you can see 14 secs in

she was pacing back and forth and looking down.
it was oddly silent during rush hour 5pm (dashcam clock is wrong). no cars honking, no one was screaming. just some people stopping as you can see and walking towards her slowly. hope she's alright cause i didnt see anything about it on local news

 

[FeuerFrei]

Set up a camera and tripod. People often restrain their behavior when on-camera.

 

[highland145]

Shouldn't have taken her user name.

 

[BoomerD]

Hurry up and jump! I'm about to miss my bus!

 

[whm1974]

Hurry up and jump! I'm about to miss my bus!

Not funny.

 

[whm1974]

OK I watched the video and it's good that some people pulled over to try to stop her.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

OK I watched the video and it's good that some people pulled over to try to stop her.

I'm sure the op was greatly relieved.

 

[crab]

To be fair - When I have to cross the Delaware, I too wish I was dead.

 

[disappoint]

what to do when someone wants to jump off a bridge?

I'd call 911 and try to talk her out of it.

 

[whm1974]

I'd call 911 and try to talk her out of it.

Good, that is what we should do.

 

[IronWing]

Good, that is what we should do.

Need to see her elbows first.

ATOT, collectively, tries to talk someone out of committing suicide, the mind boggles.

 

[BD231]

Pull over force her into your car light up some weed and tell her there's more to life than bein a prostitute

 

[Sonikku]

It is her life. She can do with it as she so chooses.

 

[Rifter]

If they want to jump fine, its their decision and really unless you lock them up you cant stop them. If they need help and someone to talk to thats fine to.

Just pick one and do it, holding up rush hour traffic on a bridge is ridiculous and people that do it should be tased/tear gassed/whatever needs to be done to be removed and traffic restored.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

OK I watched the video and it's good that some people pulled over to try to stop her.

They probably pulled over and whipped out their cameras so that they'd have footage to sell if she jumped.

 

[whm1974]

They probably pulled over and whipped out their cameras so that they'd have footage to sell if she jumped.

That is so, pathetic some people would do that instead of helping.

 

[Sonikku]

That is so, pathetic some people would do that instead of helping.

It isn't as far fetched as you may think. I recall a transwoman getting physically assaulted at a McDonald's and instead of helping or breaking up the beatdown, the employees all whipped out their phones and... video taped it.

 

[Red Squirrel]

That's a crappy situation to see, and with that much traffic, you can't really stop as people are going to get super road rage at you and it may actually make the situation worse such as people ramming into your car and end up pushing you and the person off. Hard to tell what I'd do, at heat of moment when I realize what's going on I'd maybe just say "F it" and stop anyway to try to talk the person out of it. But that in itself can sometimes aggravate the situation. There is a certain way to approach that situation. Either way I'd probably call 911, but in reality it may be too late before help arrives so I'd still want to intervene further after. Though the 911 operator may also be able to help with that.

Sometimes suicidal people call 611 because they just want to talk to someone and know someone there will answer, we get 611 calls at night sometimes and I've had some suicidal people that I talked to. Really sad. The good news is if they're actually calling somewhere, deep down, they don't really actually want to do it and want help. People who have massive depression tend to do it very fast at the spur of the moment without warning. It's really sad since you can go a long time knowing someone not realizing that they have depression. Then one day you find out they hung themselves or something.

 

[luv2liv]

i didnt call 911 cause my phone was dead. i would like to pull over and talk to her but seeing how people can be sued for helping others would sucks. if she jumped cause of me, her family might sue me. sucks but a possibility.
by the time i reached the end of the bridge, i saw 2 cop cars and 2 fire trucks heading her direction. not sure what the fire trucks are for.

 

[Red Squirrel]

This whole lawsuit stuff really sucks, since that is totally a potential possibility too. Try to help someone then end up getting sued for it.

In China it's actually really bad for that. That's why you see videos of injured people in middle of the road and everyone just keeps driving over them, because if they stop they are now responsible for their life. It's ridiculous that the world has come to this.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

i didnt call 911 cause my phone was dead. i would like to pull over and talk to her but seeing how people can be sued for helping others would sucks. if she jumped cause of me, her family might sue me. sucks but a possibility.
by the time i reached the end of the bridge, i saw 2 cop cars and 2 fire trucks heading her direction. not sure what the fire trucks are for.

Living your life to avoid possible litigation sucks. You have a dash cam but, no charger in your car? Firemen are first responders and have equipment and training police don't. I hope when you're in need of assistance, the people around you do more.

 

[luv2liv]

Yeah, I couldn't charge the phone because the phone uses stupid USB c. I have plenty of micro USB though. This is why I am switching back to note 4 if anyone is selling

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Living your life to avoid possible litigation sucks. You have a dash cam but, no charger in your car? Firemen are first responders and have equipment and training police don't. I hope when you're in need of assistance, the people around you do more.

What are the people supposed to do? A person without the proper training or skill set would do more harm than good in a situation like that. The best thing the average person could do there is to call the authorities and stay the hell out of the way. Not even counting the potential litigation, there are a thousand ways that stopping to "help" could go wrong, like spooking the jumper and escalating things, causing an accident by stopping on a highway and/or making it difficult for the police and fire department to get to the scene because it's blocked off by the cars of amateur psychiatrists who think they can help. I'd call 911 and keep driving and count that as doing the best thing possible.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

What are the people supposed to do? A person without the proper training or skill set would do more harm than good in a situation like that. The best thing the average person could do there is to call the authorities and stay the hell out of the way. Not even counting the potential litigation, there are a thousand ways that stopping to "help" could go wrong, like spooking the jumper and escalating things, causing an accident by stopping on a highway and/or making it difficult for the police and fire department to get to the scene because it's blocked off by the cars of amateur psychiatrists who think they can help. I'd call 911 and keep driving and count that as doing the best thing possible.

That's a pretty lame outlook. Sometimes trying to do the right thing does have unintended consequences but, that doesn't mean you don't try. It's called being human. Avoiding possible bad outcomes leads to hiding under your bed and eating fast food for the rest of your life. Life is for living not, for making risk management happy.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

That's a pretty lame outlook. Sometimes trying to do the right thing does have unintended consequences but, that doesn't mean you don't try. It's called being human. Avoiding possible bad outcomes leads to hiding under your bed and eating fast food for the rest of your life. Life is for living not, for making risk management happy.

Right!! See a person having a heart attack and instead of calling 911 grab a lamp and McGyver a defibrillator out of the cord. So what if you don't know what you're doing and it all goes horribly wrong and you kill the person by doing something you're not qualified for, sometimes trying to do the right thing does have unintended consequences.

See a drunk driver don't call 911, try the PIT maneuver to safely deposit the driver in a hedge before he hurts somebody. So what if you're not qualified and have never done it before and so what if you push him into a school bus and kill 10 kids. Sometimes trying to do the right thing does have unintended consequences.

Jump right in, because life is like a movie and despite having no training to do anything, you're just that doggone special and you can safely handle anything. WTF needs experts if you're on the scene? Because in a crisis situation what you really need to sort things out is an untrained, "my life is pathetic and I want to be a hero!!" moron doing something stupid that he's not qualified to even attempt because doing anything is better than doing nothing.