New Jersey's Victory Bridge has been closed off to pedestrians as of Friday afternoon, after two suicide attempts were recorded last week, the Associated Press reported. Recent years have seen more than 80 suicides occur at the New Jersey bridge along Route 35, officials said.
With only vehicles being allowed to pass on the so-called "suicide bridge" over the Raritan Valley, barrels were installed by the state Department of Transportation in front of the pedestrian and bicycle lanes connecting Perth Amboy and Sayreville to prevent more suicides.
"Hopefully it will help prevent future incidents," Stephen Schapiro, DOT spokesman, told the Home News Tribune, adding that New Jersey State Police patrols will be increasing their activity around the area.
Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz said the barrels don't satisfy her concerns, but they're a start. She will be meeting with local police and an assistant DOT commissioner on Monday to discuss the future of the bridge.
"I want them to see for themselves," Diaz said about the meeting on the bridge, a 110-feet span redesigned in 2004 with high arch in the middle.
Additionally, DOT is also attempting to search for permanent solutions to address the suicide issue, Schapiro added.
"The city added pressure last month after Giancarlos Taveras, 16, a junior at the Academy for Urban Leadership Charter High School in Perth Amboy, apparently jumped off the bridge," according to Myjerseycentral.com. "His body was found Sept. 20 on some rock near the foot of the bridge. Nearby police also found the body of a Plainfield man who apparently jumped earlier that week from the Driscoll bridge."
Last week, 19-year-old Daury Hernandez-Gomez of New Brunswick Avenue was found screaming for help in the Raritan River after allegedly jumping off the Victory Bridge. After being rescued by the Perth Amboy Fire Department and Police Department boats, he was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick for treatment.
Less than 48 hours later, a 16-year-old Perth Amboy High School student ended up on the ledge of the bridge after a passerby saw her trying to jump off the bridge and attempted to grab her. After being lifted over the bridge rail by motorists and police, including Middlesex County Sheriff Officer Todd Grossman and state Corrections Officer Sylvester Brown, the victim was transferred to Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy.
The redesigned bridge should have been built with a barrier since it first opened, Perth Amboy resident Dorothy Carty Daniel said.
"I saw it when they were building the bridge they made railings like a ladder making it a suicide bridge," said Daniel, who expressed concerned for the city's police and firefighters who perform suicide rescue and recovery operations.
"People have lost their lives. We're going to lose one of our own rescuing people. It's going to happen. They going to go in to rescue someone and get caught in the undercurrent and get taken away," said Daniel, noting the Alvin P. Williams Memorial Park in Woodbridge is named after a Woodbridge police officer who unsuccessfully tried to rescue two children in a flood-ravaged creek years ago.
"It would make me sick to lose one of our guys," Daniel said.
