It's been three years since Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Deputy Ken Rushing watched 18-year-old Andrew Popp lean backward off the edge of Cold Spring Bridge and disappear into the fog-cloaked gorge below.
The image pops into the veteran deputy's mind at odd moments, including when he was driving his children to Disneyland recently.
"It got quiet in the car and I saw him again, right before he jumped," Rushing said. "He gave me a thousand-mile stare. He basically looked right through me. And then he just faded away."
Popp was the 43rd person in four decades to commit suicide from the bridge. The death of the popular, college-bound athlete in July 2005 proved to be a turning point, galvanizing the public and law enforcement to do something about the growing toll at the graceful, 1,200-foot-long steel arch on California 154.
Opened in 1964, Cold Spring Bridge links coastal Santa Barbara County to the wineries and boutique towns of the Santa Ynez Valley.
Jumpers have ranged in age from 18 to 74, according to coroner's statistics. The 220-foot fall into a wooded ravine is always lethal, said Sheriff's Cmdr. Dominick Palera.
"We are also the coroner's office, so recovery and notification of kin always falls on our shoulders," Palera said. "It's never easy. So we started asking, 'How can we prevent this?' "
The most recent suicide, the 44th, occurred in February, when a 60-year-old doctor left his car running and jumped over the thigh-high railing.
Caltrans last summer came up with a $1-million plan to install 6-foot-high safety barriers on top of the existing 30-inch-high concrete railing. The project has the backing of the Sheriff's Department, the California Highway Patrol and mental health experts.
Barriers deter people who are considering suicide, and sometimes that is all they need to reconsider, said Dr. Lisa Firestone, a suicide specialist at the Glendon Assn., a Santa Barbara mental health organization. Suicidal people are "in crisis, impulsive, not thinking clearly," she said. "A barrier is a clear stop sign that states, 'This is not a solution. We care about you.' "
Numerous studies have shown that people who attempt suicide once often go on to live full and productive lives without other attempts, Firestone said.
Still, the plan has detractors.
A group called Friends of the Bridge says it would ruin the look of one of the most photographed spots in the county.
