PORT ANGELES — City officials plan to discuss possible design modifications to the fences at the Eighth Street bridges after 21-year-old Stephanie Diane Caldwell fell to her death Saturday.
The two bridges, replaced in 2009, have 4-foot-6-inch combination wall-railings.
The original bridges, built over the Valley Creek and Tumwater Creek gorges in 1936, had 7-foot-8-inch fences that were added in 1959 to the central areas of the spans.
City staff members will discuss design options today during their weekly meeting, Nathan West, city economic and community development director, said Tuesday.
Mayor Dan Di Guilio said Tuesday that he will broach the topic when he conducts his weekly meeting Monday with City Manager Dan McKeen.
“This was a real tragedy,” Di Guilio said. “I have great sympathy for the family.
“I’m going to bring the issue up about what steps we can take to prevent those kinds of tragedies from happening.
“If there is something we can do, I certainly would support that.”
A bicyclist reported at 10:26 a.m. Saturday that a woman had plunged over the West Eighth Street Bridge that stretches, at its highest point, 98 feet above the Valley Creek gorge.
The woman later was identified as Caldwell, of Port Angeles.
Her family told police she had made “suicidal-type comments” Friday, police Sgt. Glen Roggenbuck said in an earlier interview.
There are no facts to indicate an accident or criminal act occurred, Deputy Police Chief Brian Smith said Tuesday.
Fourteen incidents of actual, threatened and attempted suicides had occurred at the bridges between December 1999 and December 2008.
Two suicides occurred during that period, both in 2000.
The new bridges were opened Feb. 24, 2009 as part of a $24.6 million project.
Between April 27 and May 18 of that year, two men attempted suicide, one threatened suicide and a fourth man intentionally leapt to his death.
Pedestrian safety fences were added to both sides of the bridge in 2011 in a $4.8 million project.
In 2012, a city utility employee grabbed a person who was in the process of jumping over one of the bridges, Smith recalled Tuesday.
In July 2012, a 20-year-old Port Angeles woman jumped to her death from the western Eighth Street bridge into the Tumwater Creek ravine.
During the 5½ years that the new bridges have been opened, it has not been unusual for city police officers to deter would-be jumpers.
“We are all aware of things that have happened where we’ve been called to the area and been able to intervene before someone carried out their stated plans,” Smith said.
Commenters on recent Peninsula Daily News articles about Caldwell’s death have suggested that city officials should consider suicide prevention measures for the bridges.
Suicide barriers on bridges save lives, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the state Department of Transportation.
The state agency addressed the merits of suicide fences on bridges in a question-and-answer report on the Aurora Bridge in Seattle at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-suicidefence.
“Adding fencing to the bridge is the most cost effective and practical answer to deter people from falling from the bridge,” according to the question-and-answer report.
Simply having a barrier in place is an effective deterrent for individuals who wish to attempt suicide by jumping, according to the question-and-answer report.
“There is evidence that suicides by jumping off tall structures are highly impulsive acts, sometimes with only seconds between the impulse and the jump.
“Barriers make jumping more difficult and buy time for reconsideration or intervention by others.
In addition, a University of California study of 500 people who were stopped from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge showed that only 6 percent of those people committed suicide in some other way.
Suicide-prevention hotline signs also are affixed along the sidewalks of some bridges.
Suicide barriers can be expensive.
Eighth Street bridges project director Santosh Kuruvilla of Lacey-based Exeltech Consulting Inc., which managed the construction project, said after the new bridges were installed that tunnel-like, caged suicide prevention fences for both Eighth Street bridges would cost between $1 million and $2 million.
“It comes down to cost,” Kuruvilla said.
Kuruvilla did not respond Tuesday afternoon to a request for further comment.
Clallam County 24-hour telephone crisis services are available for those who are considering suicide, or who know someone they are concerned may be in need of help, at 360-452-4500 for eastern Clallam County Crisis Line and at 360-374-6177 for West End Outreach Services.
Jefferson County Mental Health Services are available at 360-385-0321 and 800-659-0321.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
