West Gate Bridge - Suicide and Other Deaths

Suicide and Other Deaths

Police data show up to one suicide happens every three weeks at the West Gate Bridge. A 2004 coroner's report recommended anti-suicide fencing or barriers be erected on the bridge to deter people from taking their lives. In 2008, the bodies of a mother in her late 20s and her 18-month-old baby were found on the river bank below the West Gate Bridge, prompting further calls to erect a suicide barrier.

Those who argue for a suicide barrier claim that most of those who jump from the West Gate Bridge do so through impulse and that police officers who try to save those who try to jump are putting their own lives in danger. There are multiple incidents of police officers dangling off the side of the bridge while holding onto would-be jumpers. A 2000 Royal Melbourne Hospital study on people who jumped from the bridge found at least 62 cases between 1991 and 1998. Seven people survived the 58-metre fall. Seventy-four percent of those who jumped from the bridge were male, with an average age of 33. More than 70 percent were suffering from mental illness. Of those who jumped off the West Gate Bridge, 31 percent fell on land. Some of those who landed in water drowned afterwards.

In 2009, Melbourne girl, Darcy Freeman, aged 4, was thrown off of the bridge by her father and later died in hospital. Her father, Arthur Freeman, was subject to a custodial order and was deeply disturbed by the verdict. In April 2011, Freeman was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison

In February 2009 the first stage of a temporary suicide barrier was erected, constructed of concrete crash barriers topped with a welded mesh fence. By June that year it has been claimed that the fence has prevented two suicides. Most of the second stage of the barrier has been completed throughout the span of the bridge. The barriers are costed at $20 million.