Victor Maccharoli - A lawsuit has been filed against Caltrans alleging flaws in its environmental review of plans to place suicide barriers along Cold Spring Canyon Bridge. At least 47 people have committed suicide at the site since the bridge was built in 1963.
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Group files suit against suicide barrier plan
A longstanding opponent of plans to place suicide barriers along the Cold Spring Canyon Bridge on Highway 154 has filed a civil lawsuit against Caltrans alleging the state agency botched portions of its environmental review of the safety project.
Friends of the Bridge, an informal group of community members opposed to the barrier concept, cited three specific violations of state environmental law and asked Caltrans to set aside its approval of the $3 million project.
“We are trying to stop the wasteful expenditure of funds for legitimate traffic safety programs, including the widening of [Highway] 101 and many, many others,” said Marc McGinnes, an outspoken critic of the plan and spokesman for Friends of the Bridge. “We don’t do things just to delay. We have fought this in every way to make sure that this project doesn’t get done.”
Caltrans officials, who had yet to see the official court complaint, declined to comment on pending litigation but noted that the suicide barrier project has received widespread community support, including backing by suicide prevention advocates and law enforcement officials.
“We’ve always said that this is a very important safety project for the community,” said Colin Jones, a Caltrans spokesman. He added later, “We’ve completed the environmental report and we’re looking forward to moving forward on the project.”
However, the civil action filed in Santa Barbara Superior Court on Tuesday alleges a series of missteps by Caltrans in its lengthy report on the expected environmental impacts of the project.
In the report, the agency identified a mesh grid design as the best alternative and noted the inward-curving barriers would rise 6 feet from the current safety railings for a total height from the roadway of 9 feet, 7 inches.
As the project would have a significant adverse effect on cultural and aesthetic resources, such as views while driving along the bridge, McGinnes said Caltrans is required to mitigate or avoid those impacts. However, he said the agency didn’t give the public a chance to comment on proposed mitigation measures before approving the environmental report.
“It doesn’t matter what they were,” he said. “We’re not asking a judge to say these aren’t good mitigation measures. We’re asking the judge to protect the public’s right to comment on them.”
He also argued that Caltrans failed to publish a mitigation monitoring program to ensure the various mitigation measures are actually undertaken. Finally, the suit alleges that Caltrans failed to address a policy in the county’s general plan relating to impacts on visual resources.
“They just ignored it,” McGinnes said. “There is no discussion in the draft or the final [environmental report] of that policy conflict. It’s a slam-dunk case.”
Should a judge side with Friends of the Bridge, Caltrans could presumably retract its environmental impact report, address any inaccuracies or omissions, and recertify the plan.
When asked whether the lawsuit constituted a delay tactic, McGinnes said his intention since learning of the project has been to prevent the project from reaching completion, not delaying it.
“If at some point a boondoggle is perceived by enough people as being a boondoggle, it won’t happen,” he said. “I don’t know if that will happen. I’m just trusting that if enough people see what a stinker this is, it won’t happen.”
His opinion stands in stark contrast to those backing the project, including local leaders who voted unanimously at a Santa Barbara County Association of Governments for a funding exchange that will keep the barrier plan and two other critical transportation projects moving forward.
“At the end of the day, this is about saving lives,” said County Supervisor Salud Carbajal, noting that the bridge has the highest fatality rate of any single location along the state highway system in a district that spans five counties.
Sheriff’s officials have also testified to the dangerous situation facing deputies who respond to reports of a suicidal subject on the bridge, and even screened a video showing a deputy nearly falling from the bridge while trying to pull a distraught man back from the brink.
“We almost lost a sheriff’s deputy trying to save one of those individuals,” Carbajal said. “A deputy almost went over that bridge.”
McGinnes has suggested simply retraining law enforcement personnel not to risk their own personal safety to save a suicidal subject. He has also insisted building the barriers would merely divert people to other locations or means of committing suicide.
Suicide prevention advocates and Caltrans have disputed that notion, and the transportation agency cited a series of studies related to the issue.
“Regarding saving lives and possibly diverting people to jump off freeway overpasses, the purpose of the project is to reduce suicides and reduce risks to emergency personnel on the bridge itself, not at other locations,” according to the environmental report. “However, a benefit of the project … is that research has shown than often people do not go to another location to attempt self-harm.”
The 1,200-foot arch span rises more than 400 feet above Cold Spring Canyon and offers sweeping views of the Santa Ynez Valley from the top of San Marcos Pass. It is considered a scenic resource by the state and is widely recognized for its austere and graceful architectural design.
It has also been the site of at least 47 suicides since its construction in 1963, including 33 deaths in the past 25 years.
Comment on this article
Sue happy : 7/23/2009
Here we go again... if you don't like it, sue
Save Lives Instead
bridge : 7/23/2009
I'm all for preserving the aesthetic quality of the bridge but not at the expense of human lives.
sb resident
: 7/23/2009
This is a perfect example of why California is in debt. Putting a suicide barrier on that bridge isn't going to stop someone who is set on taking their own life from committing suicide; it's just another 3 million down the drain. BOOOOOO to stupid people.
Use it or Lose it Economics : 7/23/2009
"Boondoggle" is the correct description of this project. If proponents want to save lives, take the $3 MILLION and put it toward something with a lot higher payoff. For example, replacing the funding for home care being deleted from the state budget. One of the many problems in California finance is that money is set aside for specific purposes (i.e., roads) and the people in charge of such purposes work hard to find ways to spend that money least they lose it. They certainly do not want it returned to the general fund to be used for more important work. That's a large part of what's going on her...together with politicians expressing platitudes for electoral consumption.
RHS
Suicide barrier : 7/23/2009
Isn't unfortunate that it requires litigation to bring attention to a bad plan? There have been talks of putting this barrier in place for a long time and, fortunately, it's always been shot down. Why would it be a good idea now that our community is in dire financial straights? The shell game used to "fund" this project is shady at best. There have been more lives lost due to drungs, gangs, violence, and domestic abuse than the one-a-year (average) suicides from this bridge. Perhaps if the county wants to toss out money for saving lives, they would get more for the money in other areas.
Local-Girl
More Inaccuracies from Barrier Supporters : 7/23/2009
(1) Nobody actually knows is this bridge is the highest concentration of fatalities in this CalTrans district or not. Nobody ever bothered to investigate that. Barrier supporters just made it up to make the project sounds more important. (2) The studies cited in the environmental impact report DO NOT prove that barriers save lives. They are inconclusive, and openly state they should not be interpreted as evidence that barriers save lives. If this is such a great project, why do they need to lie to the public to get it done?
Disgusted
duh : 7/23/2009
This is truly insane. So a dedicated suicide case decides to head up to the bridge where 'everyone jumps'...he sees there is a 6 foot high fence there so he thinks to himself "hmmm...I'd better find a another way, I can't possibly get over that fence", and he pulls out his 9mm and shoots himself in the head in the middle of the bridge...a few minutes later a schoolbus full of children arrives on the bridge and the busdriver sees the dead guy at the last minute, swerves to miss him, and...well, you know the rest. Innocent lives are lost. This would not be a suicide prevention barrier. It would be a testament to the stupidity of those who pushed to have it installed, like a monument to morons. Because when the next jumper decides the bridge is the right place to do it, they will all see how stupid they were to support such a ridiculous thing, and they MIGHT realize they have no COMMON SENSE!
person
duh, part 2 : 7/23/2009
You don't even need a 9mm. It's only a 10 foot barrier, so all you need to do is park your car on the bridge and climb on the roof to get over it. If you can dunk a basketball by jumping off the roof of a car, you could get over this barrier.
dude
Bridge : 7/23/2009
I'm surprised at Supervisor Carbajal, normally an intelligent and thoughtful guy. I guess he's afraid that if he votes no to the barrier and then someone leaps to his/her death he'll get bad press. Suicide is a tragic end to a sad life but blaming a bridge is childish." Where there's a will there's a way".
Noletaman
It doesnt matter : 7/23/2009
it doesn't matter if they put a suicide barrier up or not, if some one wants to kill them selves they will find another place to do it. if anything they should put a diving board out there in the middle. with a list of names of all who have dove off the bridge and forgotten about. along with the message at the bottom "suicide is a permanent answer, to a temporary problem"
J Rock of SB
Spam Storm : 7/23/2009
Sure great how one guy can spam up a place, like this. The barrier is good, save lives and build it. Fellows like this McGinnes, who rudely interrupted the SBCAG meeting, are out of control selfish me-generation types. No respect for anything, particularly peoples' lives.
get on with it
courthouse : 7/23/2009
Are we going to ban people from going up the courthouse tower once they start using that as a suicide spot?
concerned
Barriers can help : 7/23/2009
The most recent suicide (to my knowledge) off that bridge was a nurse, wife and mother of 3 young children. Had she shot herself or used some other means, she might still be alive. That jump is 100% lethal and the whole point is that, given the impulsive nature of suicide, if you as a community make it more difficult to take your life, you'll have less dead people. It's not rocket science. Many professionals, including the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, advocate for barriers. And honestly, the aesthetics of Cold Spring bridge are best appreciated from below (hence the photo vantage point in this article); that road is a one lane highway with no center divider-- no one should be concerned with the loss of the view. The money for this project cannot be diverted to other mental health issues. As the economy gets tighter, the tendency and pressure to ignore preventative and emergency safety measures will increase and it will most certainly catch up with us. Its surprising that Mr. McGinnes, champion environmentalist that he is, doesn't have a more important project to promote.
Barrier or Bury Your Head : 7/23/2009
Barriers do not help. They are legalistic devices to cover government’s ass, period. If you are really interested in saving lives, then get to the root CAUSE of suicide rather than covering your ass and burying your head in the sand. And where do you get this notion that a gunshot to the head is survivable?
AN50
boondoggle - yeah right : 7/24/2009
I commend Salud Carbajal on his stand to suppor this important issue. Thank you! Marc McGuiness, shame on you for wasting my tax dollars and the time of Caltrans in having to deal with you. You are a selfish and thoughtless human being. Get over yourself and move on. This barrier will be built - so there!
hidiho4
There was one.. : 7/24/2009
Survived a couple of months about 20 years ago..I was listening to my scanner he survived the fall was all I knew but that's the only one I ever heard of..Don't know his name..
Bevers Cleaver
Diverting scarce funds to merely divert suicide to other places : 7/24/2009
After first insisting two years ago that its bridge barriers proposal would save lives, Caltrans now admits that merely wants to DIVERT suicide away from the bridge to other places in the community. At page 263 of its just-released EIR Caltrans states: "The purpose of the project is to reduce the number of suicides on the bridge and not to reduce the overall suicide rate." This is a case of outright fraud, since Caltrans got initial funding on the basis of a cost-benefit statement that said that it would save an average of two lives a year. So now SBCAG gets in on the fraudulent diversion scheme by DIVERTING $1.5 MILLION from the Hwy 101 widening project! What utter contempt for the public's legitimate transportation and traffic safety needs! The truth is that Caltrans and SBCAG's DOUBLE DIVERSION BOONDOGGLE means everybody loses except the pro-barrier zealots who want to make the rest of us the victims of their pain and anguish from which they have not taken sufficient personal responsibility for their recovery. Case in point: Mr. Carbjal
A recovered suicide "victim"
Absent minded professors shouldn't retire... : 7/24/2009
.....because as in this case, all they do is throw mud, needlessly abuse time money and public process while potentially causing delay in a long overdue safety measure for the states most lethal and opportunistic suicide mode on public property
too bad
Suicideby... : 7/24/2009
Why don't we spend taxpayer money buying handbooks to pass out on how to take your life without impacting the people that have to clean up your mess... Suicide is the most selfish act a person can do, if a person is that serious, barrier(s),counselor(s) and drug therapy isn't going to stop them...
Build the Barrier Already : 7/25/2009
Just get it built. And stop the hectoring by McGinnes, shouting at people who are trying to save lives doesn't cut it.
Save Lives
Burning his Bridges : 7/26/2009
for the past two years one by one group by group i have watched McGinnes alienate people who once respected him, due to the outrageous statements and behavior he has employed in trying to kill this very basic and in the scheme of things, modest public safety project. in the course of doing so he has and continues to make cavalier and callous comments on a regular basis regarding people at risk of suicide, those who have committed suicide and those whose loved ones have committed suicide. many on this very bridge. it is unfortunate that marc chytilo is hitching his wagon to mcginnes' folly. at a time when so much else deserves attention in our community county and country. i'm sorry to say both of them have 'missed the marc'
off the marc
Preserve the view : 8/4/2009
Who cares if a few nuts want to jump? AFAIC it is more valuable to preserve a magnificent view then to save a few dozen losers who wish to die. It's their right, anyway. As long as they don't fall on someone, as they might if jumping from a freeway overpass, they're not harming anyone. If you want to prevent that, electrify the rail, so anyone trying to jump will be painfilly electrocuted. At least it won't block the view.
Hardcase
all the same person : 8/24/2009
The repeated personal attacks on Marc McGinnes are all by the same obsessive nut who spams every online conversation about the barrier. She goes by WINBILLS on EdHat, and Sevendolphins on the Independent. Her latest "accomplishment" was to spam an online poll on EdHat so badly that it had to be canceled.
anti-froot loop
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