[Jonny5]

On Sunday, June 28th a woman was killed when she fell from the condo tower under construction at 500 Sherbourne St. The police and fire dept. had the street closed from Earl St. to Wellesley from afternoon until about 8PM, but the incident was never reported in the news (as far as I could determine).

Has anybody heard of this in the news?

I think I found a news story about it:

http://www.xtra.ca/public/Toronto/Report_of_PrideSunday_suicide_sparks_crisis_concern-7118.aspx

 

[Urban Shocker]

I missed it by five or ten seconds, but there was a jumper at the north end of the southbound platform at Yonge and Bloor last night, just before eight. I came down the stairs and heard a girl scream, saw lots of agitated people, and a train stopped just inside the station with the doors closed. "What happened?" asked the woman in the lottery ticket booth. Thought at first some crazy person was on the loose, attacking people, so I moved away. But the girl was unharmed, comforted by her friend. Someone rushed over to the TTC control room and banged on the door. Uniformed security rushed out and over to the train. A TTC employee ushered another crying woman into the office.

Knew I shouldn't have taken that route home.

 

[Edward Skira]

That's why there were so many people waiting for the Yonge bus at King around 9PM.

 

[Urban Shocker]

I guess so.

Went downstairs a few minutes later and heard some indistinct announcement about shuttle buses. The next Danforth train, eastbound, went through the station without stopping, full of passengers. An empty train arrived a few minutes later and I was on my way home to the Summer Palace.

Could subway trains not slow down before they enter stations? The TTC must surely know that some suicides are smart enough to know they'll stand a better chance of being killed if they jump at the point where the train enters the station at speed.

Also, there has to be a design solution to this sort of thing - something akin to how they don't have doors on the entrances to public washrooms any more so as to prevent illegal activities from taking place therein.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

I was in Vic. Park station back in the early 80's when this happened, my only direct experience with such. I didn't see it but I heard it, it happened on the opposite platform. As soon as it happened I knew what had transpired but what really stunned me was the speed and efficiency by which they evacuated the station. Shuttle buses arrived in very good time as I recall, which allowed us to continue our east or west journey.

 

[JasonParis]

Having trains enter stations slowly would simply just slow down the service, even if it maybe saved a few lives.

The only anti-suicide "design" I've ever witnessed on a subway system is the typical, but expensive, platform barrier...

 

[Roy G Biv]

The TSA goes after private business for all sorts of made-up safety-risks, and I always use the example of Toronto's lack of subway platform barriers to show their hypocrisy.

 

[Mustapha]

Having trains enter stations slowly would simply just slow down the service, even if it maybe saved a few lives.

The only anti-suicide "design" I've ever witnessed on a subway system is the typical, but expensive, platform barrier...

I saw these in London, UK, but they weren't retrofitted to the older lines.

 

[Therion]

The situation on Wednesday night was apparently not a suicide, but a child got a separated from her family. The TTC searched the tunnels for her, but it turns out she took the subway up to Sheppard with some other people. This was on CP24 yesterday. I had to walk up to Eglington from Rosedale... at least it was a nice day.

 

[College Park]

There was a lot of talk about this phenomenon when the "Luminous Veil" was proposed for the Bloor/Danforth Bridge. It goes against logic (you'd figure they'd just pick another bridge to jump off), but it's a very real thing. The Star did a follow up a couple years ago, and suicides onto the DVP dropped substantially once the veil was in place ie. the jumpers didn't just find another bridge. Really a very very odd, completely counter-intuitive thing in my mind, but fascinating.

If you're on the path beneath the Leaside bridge you'll see a few memorials: the unlovely sister is not entirely ignored.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The situation on Wednesday night was apparently not a suicide, but a child got a separated from her family. The TTC searched the tunnels for her, but it turns out she took the subway up to Sheppard with some other people. This was on CP24 yesterday. I had to walk up to Eglington from Rosedale... at least it was a nice day.

That was a different situation, earlier in the evening; I happened to get on at Union, where a rather frantic female TTC employee was asking people on the platform if they had seen a five year old missing girl. The shocked and crying passengers at Yonge and Bloor a few minutes before eight o'clock were because of the jumper.

When they're pushed it's a big news story. When they jump it isn't.

 

[Marko]

Anyone know if the subway suicide rates have increased with the decrease in bridge jumpers?

 

[GenerationW]

Anyone know if the subway suicide rates have increased with the decrease in bridge jumpers?

I'm not sure they release specific stats like that to the public.