SHARE

18th Suicide From GWB This Year Matches 2014 Total

FORT LEE, N.J. -- The 18th jumper of 2015 to commit suicide from the George Washington Bridge the morning of New Year's Eve tied last year's total.

GWB

GWB

Photo Credit: DAILY VOICE PHOTO

Authorities earlier this year said they feared that this year's number would be much higher, after the 12th person jumped in mid-June.

Thursday's jumper, a 31-year-old man from Hastings-on-Hudson in Westchester County, leaped from the mid-span upper level at 11:19 a.m., authorities said.

He was pulled from the water, taken to the 135th Street boat basin on the New York City side and rushed to St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in critical condition, Joseph Pentangelo of the Port Authority Police Department told Daily Voice.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital at 12:10 p.m., Pentangelo said. His black Suburu was later found on 172nd Street in Manhattan.

Others who leapt to the deaths from the span this year included Patrick Donohue, 50, of Trenton, a former assistant provost at The College of New Jersey.

In May, a 30-something Ethiopian man climbed the GWB's New Jersey tower, came back down, then spoke with a Port Authority police office from the other side of the railing before he “just let go” and fell to his death.

A week earlier, two people jumped in less than 24 hours. Both were Asian woman -- one 30 and the other a 22-year-old honor student from Minneapolis who was about to be graduated when she flew to New York City hours earlier.

Four people jmped to their deaths from the GWB in April in a span of nine days.

At the same time, Port Authority police have thwarted dozens more attempts.

A trio of quick-thinking officers in March handcuffed a suicidal 22-year-old man to a bridge railing before pulling him back to safety.

Three weeks earlier, a 38-year-old East Rutherford man who authority police stopped from jumping in February leapt to his death from the exact same spot.

The Port Authority said it plans to build a nine-foot, $50 million barrier on the bridge to deter would-be jumpers.

to follow Daily Voice Fort Lee and receive free news updates.

SCROLL TO NEXT ARTICLE