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Sunday, May 4, 2008

Budget cuts may end Skyway suicide patrols


Budget cuts may end Skyway suicide patrols

By MITCH STACY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published Sunday, May 4, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.

ST. PETERSBURG — Working suicide patrol on the towering Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Leif Cardwell rolled up to find the 58-year-old woman with one leg already draped over the short concrete barrier wall. The license plate on the Ford minivan she drove there said: "HPPY NOW."

Cardwell kept his distance, imploring her to talk to him about her problems and not go through with it. He had thwarted a bridge suicide attempt two months before.

"It's too late," she kept saying. She threw down her driver's license and cell phone and swung her other leg over.

Then she was gone, just like that. Seconds later came a loud crash when she hit the water. "It was a very windy day, it was noisy, but it was clearly audible," recalls the 38-year-old trooper. "It is a violent way to go."

Despondent souls keep stopping at the peak of the majestic Florida Gulf Coast landmark to kill themselves every year, adding to its reputation as one of the country's most notorious bridges for jumpers.

It is a problem that the state has tried to address with 24-hour patrols, surveillance cameras and crisis hot line phones at the top. Now it is possible that the bridge patrol, which troopers say has saved dozens of lives since it was initiated in 2000, could be cut back as the cash-strapped state government struggles to make ends meet.

Ten people jumped to their deaths at the Skyway last year. But seven others were talked out of it or wrestled away from the edge by one of the troopers who drive back and forth across the 4-mile bridge around the clock specifically for that reason. One night last month, a trooper found a silver Jaguar abandoned by a 22-year-old man whose body was found in the bay; then the following day, the same officer stopped a 39-year-old would-be jumper.

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