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cbobcat49 wrote:Couldn't a jumper just climb the fence if they really wanted to?

Man stopped from suicide in gorge
May 24, 2010, 10:30 pm

Emergency responders are being credited with preventing a Trumansburg man from killing himself in a gorge Monday afternoon.

Ithaca and Cornell University police officers, Ithaca firefighters, Bangs Ambulance personnel, Tompkins County Mental Health Department workers and the Critical Incident Negotiating Team (CINT) responded to the report of a suicidal man on the Stewart Avenue bridge over Cascadilla Creek around 15:37 p.m. Monday, Ithaca Police officials said. They found the 31-year old man on sitting on the bridge railing, threatening suicide, they added.

Tall fences were installed on bridges over gorges on the Cornell campus and elsewhere in the city of Ithaca this winter after a series of suicides from bridges by students. According to fire department officials, the man had apparently gotten around the fence at one end or the other then shimmied along to a spot over the gorge. University and city officials have acknowledged the fences are unlikely to stop someone determined to jump but said they may prevent impulsive suicides.

After negotiations by CINT members, firefighters used bolt cutters to cut through the fence and put a rope around the man, and he was pulled to safety. He was transported to Cayuga Medical Center for treatment. The man's name is being withheld.

Work is continuing on the Cascadilla Gorge tail. The drain at a steep set of stairs near the bottom of the gorge has consistently plugged causing storm water runoff from the city streets to damage the trail.

Cornell University is working to systematically improve the drainage and construction of the trail so it will require less ongoing maintenance in the future. The trail is still closed while the work continues. Cornell is hoping to reopen it in the fall of 2011 depending on funding according to Todd Bittner, the director of the Cornell Plantations Natural Areas Program.