the following report produced by bureau operatives in San Francisco, assigned to install and test new data acquisition equipment - SB17

this video contains suicide test footage and analytic data
information follows.

The bureau is developing a motion analysis system SUICIDE BOX - patent pending - a motion detecting video camera and digital equipment installed in range of THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, San Francisco USA.

This vertical motion triggered device is designed to capture a video record of all falls from the bridge. The resulting footage records as a continuous sequence the trickle of people who jump off the bridge.

There are approximately 4-8 bodies retrieved per month by the coastguard. Bureau observation estimates that up to 50% of falls go unnoticed by the authorities - more information follows.

THE BRIDGE PROBLEM

San Francisco remains unchallenged as the premiere suicide destination in the United States. The Golden Gate Bridge attracts visitors from as far away as Japan.

Some statistics. 80% of bridge fatalities occur during the day, while 82% occur from the bridge's east side facing the city.

In 1994 as part of a seismic retrofit the bridge was rigged with no less than 76 motion sensors to record violent ground shaking

in the event of an earthquake.

Certainly we are witnessing an explosion of electronic monitoring.

HISTORICAL PRECEDENT

Since the bridge was completed in 1937 millions have been drawn the the structure, strung elegantly 220 feet above the water.

An average of 17 people per year have jumped to their deaths from the span. The first was H. C. Wobber, a 49-year-old bridge worker.

100 bridge deaths have been confirmed since 1992, the toll rising yearly.

AUTHORITATIVE RESPONSE

The Building and Operations Committee last year rejected proposals to install a taller barrier on the east side of the bridge and mount 8 surveillance cameras.

"I think we've come to an engineering dead end" said bridge director Virginia Simms, amidst concerns that building a higher safety barrier would mar the aesthetics of the Bay Area's signature attraction and merely relocate the suicide venue.

Some lives are lost in low visibility. New crisis phones installed on the span have received 6 calls but none of the callers wanted to be transferred to the crisis line.

COMPARATIVE DATA

A USEFUL COMPARISON. 22500 PEOPLE DIE ANNUALLY IN HOME INCIDENTS, 7100 BY FALLING. 3 PER 100 000 MANUFACTURING WORKERS DIE ON THE JOB, 10% FROM FALLS, 8% FROM FALLS TO A LOWER LEVEL, 1% FROM FALLS TO THE DAME LEVEL. 8897 PEOPLE DIE ANNUALLY FROM UNSPECIFIED FALLS

bit SUICIDE BOX trial activation GG2.3

Workers killed on the job lose a future average 5580 days production time. Conversely the number of astronauts to have died from space since 1967 is 17.

The statistical data proves only marginally useful.

STATISTICAL VERITABILITY

The last recorded suicide off the span was the 997th. Since that June 5 1995 death California Highway Patrol officials have stopped counting fearful that publicity surrounding the milestone might trigger the next jump.

Newspaper reports of the 1000th death in July 1995 were dismissed by police as "an approximation". "Nobody really knows for sure" said CHP spokesman Steve Kohler. "We don't keep exact numbers". "We don't keep statistics" says the US Coastguard.

In addition to the jumps there were 72 reportable incidents last year alone in which someone either threatened to jump or was taken in for wandering around the bridge looking suspicious or despondent.

THE SCALE OF THE PROBLEM

Length of bridge: 8940ft - Bridge speed limit: 45mph - Speeding Penalty: $160 - Fall: 240ft - Duration: 4 seconds - Vertical velocity: 75mph - Impact: substantial - Survivors: 26*

* this number counts only once Hannah Reich who survived the fall twice.

SUICIDE TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Suicide detection in low visibility is difficult and coupld compromise accuracy. The bureau will incorporate neuromorphic sensors into this application to enable night and low light suicide detection.

This experimental component consists of a focal plane array analogous to the human retina and is capable of capturing scenes containing very dim and very bright components such as the bridge at night.

The bureau is inclined not to lose count.

THE SEAGULL FACTOR

Excessive triggering caused by unanticipated seagull interference inititially disabled the SUICIDE BOX in test deployment.

SBOX DATA TEST 1.71

This has been corrected with recalibration of the horizontal field sample information.

TRAGIC DATA IN THE INFORMATION AGE

Quarterly data captured by the box will be indexed to the Dow Industrial Average. Inverse proportionality is predicted and may provide concrete measure of civic morality and character in the population. Indexing the public healthcare budget to the bit data is further expected to amplify the digital sediment.

MARKETING

The BIT SUICIDE BOX is available for your drastic application. The bureau maintains rights to all data produced by the box.

Proceeds support bit research.

DISCLAIMER The bureau is an information agency servicing the Information Age. The bureau records non-specific suicide and other data margins. The preceding research project is ongoing. Further data and analysis provided to bureau clients.

SPONSORED BY Silicon Graphics Microsoft NBC Genentech Fox Failure Analysis Disney

bit 1996 contact us for more

BUREAU OF INVERSE TECHNOLOGY San Francisco office, has recently generated significant results in the test deployment of the SUICIDE BOX [Sb 03]. The following review is an annotated excerpt from the engineer's report Commissioned by the bureau after initial public release of the data on video. The bureau plans further research and development of this information product that will be funded by the sale of the data generated.