Suicide Barrier to Be Installed on Mapo Bridge
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The Seoul Metropolitan Government will raise guardrails along the sidewalks of Mapo Bridge to prevent people from trying to kill themselves by jumping into the river.
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The city government put up new 2.5-m concave guardrails by the end of December that are nearly impossible to climb because they force a person's center of gravity backwards onto the bridge.
For extra safety, abacus bead-like rollers will be installed at the bottom of the guardrails and steel wires at 20-cm intervals.
Since September 2012, the city government has carried out a campaign in cooperation with Samsung Life Insurance to reduce the epidemic of suicide attempts on the bridge.
The city inscribed inspirational messages on the guardrails and motion sensors that automatically switch on lights when people approach.
But the campaign seems to have had the opposite effect.
Eleven people jumped from the bridge in 2011 and 15 in 2012, but since the campaign started their numbers soared to 93 in 2013, 184 in 2014, and 202 in 2015.