CHP to Alter Tactics After Near-Suicide

Farhad Ajir refused to step away from the edge.

For nearly 13 hours, he perched on the Bay Bridge, slashing his wrists with a razor blade and resolving to jump.

The California Highway Patrol’s attempt at rescuing Ajir, 38, earlier this month affected residents across the Bay Area -- causing massive traffic jams, bringing businesses to a halt and almost delaying a baseball game between the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants. Motorists were so angered that at one point, some began encouraging the Carmichael resident to jump and get it over with, police said.

When he was finally rescued, Ajir was arrested and charged with four felonies and five misdemeanors. He pleaded not guilty and is now being held on $110,000 bail.

The standoff -- one of the longest in a city already well-accustomed to suicidal jumpers -- alerted law enforcement officials that their tactics needed some revision. After the rescue, the CHP ordered a review of its actions. The suggestion of a local inventor and talk show host, Bill Wattenburg, led the CHP to recommend contracting a federal laboratory to develop a device to “ensnare suicidal individuals.”

The internal CHP report completed and released Thursday suggested that the agency took too long to respond with its Special Weapons and Tactics unit, which had to travel from Sacramento, and that the incident congested too many lanes on a bridge vital for motorists traveling between San Francisco and Oakland.

“We were slow in responding out there,” said CHP spokesman Wayne Ziese. “Some of our mistakes were taking two lanes and having too many emergency workers. We should have been able to change and adapt more quickly.”

Officials admit the incident confronted them with situations that caught them off guard. It is unusual for anyone to want to jump off the Bay Bridge, which has no sidewalk. As a result, emergency personnel were forced to block off a major section of the bridge to accommodate their equipment. In addition, officials say, it is uncommon for a suicide standoff to take so long.

“It’s not a tremendously common event,” Ziese said. “If you’re standing on the edge of that bridge, you’ve pretty much made up your mind to go.”

The CHP report recommends a collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which in the past has developed new ideas for dealing with taxing situations.

Wattenburg previously worked with the laboratory to develop a land-mine-seeking helicopter, an all-terrain robot and a technique to replace washed-out bridges with flatbed railroad cars.

Officials at the laboratory noted they had not yet been in touch with the CHP, but said a device that could release a net to envelop a jumper is not beyond the realm of possibility.

“We have a history of doing this,” said spokesman David Schwoegler.

But critics not only doubt the technology can be developed, they say such a device would cause more suicides, not fewer.

“I don’t see that being realistically invented in the near future and I don’t see that as saving many lives,” said Eve Meyer, executive director of San Francisco Suicide Prevention. “If that is employed, the people might jump before. It may clear up traffic very quickly, but it won’t save many lives.”

Most jumpers choose the Golden Gate Bridge, which has no barriers to prevent jumpers despite its reputation as one of the world’s top suicide spots. Many San Franciscans have opposed suicide barriers in order to preserve the structure’s aesthetic value. But Meyer said that ultimately, the barriers are the best way to prevent jumps.

Several structures have barriers, including the Arroyo Seco Bridge in Pasadena, the Prince Edward Viaduct in Toronto and the Eiffel Tower.