New Mexico authorities shut down pedestrian access to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge after a 15-year-old boy jumped to his death Sunday, the latest in a string of suicides that has claimed six lives this year.
The New Mexico Department of Transportation moved to shut the bridge down in response to the ongoing issue, according to a Taos County Sheriff’s Office press release. Signs reading “Do not stop on the bridge” and “No walking allowed” at the popular tourist destination near Taos, KOAT News reported. Three of this year’s six suicide deaths at the bridge occurred within the past three weeks.
“Unfortunately, you have people from all over the state, from all over the country come to jump off this bridge,” Taos County Sheriff Steve Miera said.
The bridge has attracted tourists since the 1960s for its views of the canyon and river below. It reaches a height of 650 feet above the river, making it the fifth-highest bridge nationally, according to the Taos County website. (RELATED: Federal Prisons Failed To Prevent 187 Inmate Suicides, Watchdog Report Finds)
New Mexico Department of Health Clarie lead coordinator of suicide prevention Claire Miller backed the closure and called for permanent barriers, according to KOAT News.
“We know, as recommended by American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, that barriers are the best thing when it comes to bridges. You can look at different states across the country and know that our call boxes were a first step,” Miller said.
Not all visitors support adding barriers. One tourist warned barriers would “lead to more fatalities, illness and injuries” and would be “decrepit to walk through for our tourists and our local community to look through.”
Dr. Jagdish Khubchandani, a public health professor at New Mexico State University, described the pattern as unusual.
“This seems like an emerging copycat kind of suicides where we are looking at possibly a point cluster where a number suicides happen. In a short period of time in a particular space,” he said.