Golden Gate Bridge suicides hit record high - 46 
 
 On Aug. 29, 17-year-old Gabri Aparicio drove to the Golden Gate Bridge and jumped to her death. 
 
 She became one of 46 people who took their lives at the landmark span last year, according to figures released Monday by a group advocating for more suicide barriers on the bridge. The group said the deaths were the most since the bridge opened in 1937. 
 
 The Larkspur high schooler, known as a caring overachiever, had sent out a questionnaire for a story she was working on for the school newspaper 30 minutes before her suicide, said her father, Nicolas Aparicio. 
 
 Though Gabri struggled with depression, he believes the questionnaire was proof that the teen wanted to live - and could have been saved. But she acted on an impulse, he said. 
 
 "If it wasn't for the easy access at the bridge, I still believe my daughter would be alive today," Aparicio said. 
 
 Aparicio joined dozens of other parents and family members of people who have jumped from the bridge for a news conference Monday morning outside San Francisco City Hall. 
 
 More than 1,600 people have committed suicide by jumping off the bridge since its inception. Gabri was one of 10 in August 2013, said Ken Holmes, a retired Marin County coroner and board member for the advocacy group, the Bridge Rail Foundation. 
 
 Holmes and the family members called for the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to put in the safety net they approved in 2008 but haven't installed due to funding. The bridge district needs $45 million to build the net. 
 
 "We believe that if you ask the individual to step away from their means of suicide, then you remove that temptation and you lower their risk of following through in the moment as well as in the future," said Meghan Freebeck, development director for San Francisco Suicide Prevention, a telephone crisis center. "The cost of a safety net is nothing compared to the cost of a person's life." 
 
 Aparicio said, "It is too late for Gabri. But this net would save lives, and it will save the eternal grief that families like us will have to live through." ||||| bay29_PH3_jump big 
 
 The grandson of an advocate for a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge reportedly jumped to his death from the iconic span Thursday afternoon. 
 
 Sean Moylan, 27, of Novato was the grandson of former bridge district director John Moylan, 86, who was board president in 2008 when officials moved forward with a then-controversial suicide barrier plan, the Marin Independent Journal reported. 
 
 Reached briefly by The Chronicle on Tuesday, John Moylan said only that his family was “in mourning.” Earlier, he told the Journal that the heartbreaking event was “not the bridge’s fault. It’s not anybody’s fault. It’s just that he was a very troubled young man.” 
 
 Proposed plans for a suicide barrier along the bridge, where 46 people jumped to their deaths last year, have been debated for decades. More than 1,600 people have ended their lives by jumping off the span since its completion in 1937. 
 
 Advocates for nets under the 1.7-mile bridge argue jumpers often act on impulse, and that a barrier would likely save lives. While the nets were approved in 2008, they haven’t been installed due to lack of funding. 
 
 In March, Caltrans and the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission appeared ready to pay $44 million toward the fund, according to The Chronicle’s Matier and Ross. Now, the bridge district reportedly needs to pay its $66 million share in the project. 
 
 The board of directors will consider an item to put together a full funding package for the construction of the net during a June 27 meeting, said bridge district General Manager Denis Mulligan. 
 
 “The board’s goal is to bring the project to fruition,” he said. But he added, “The details are still being finalized.” 
 
 If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please call (800) 273-TALK(8255) for help.
– A grim new milestone at one of the world's most popular suicide spots: Some 46 people jumped to their deaths from the Golden Gate Bridge last year, it was announced yesterday. That's the most recorded since the San Francisco landmark opened in 1937, per the Chronicle. Campaigners say those lives could have been saved by the safety net that the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District approved years ago, but the project is still at least $45 million short on funding. One big complaint from families of suicide victims, per ABC7: The bridge will this year see the installation a $26 million moveable barrier designed to prevent head-on collisions—though only one person has died in such a crash on the bridge in the last 15 years. Some 1,600 people have jumped to their deaths since the bridge opened, and campaigners say many of them would still be alive if they had been prevented from acting on impulse. "If it wasn't for the easy access at the bridge, I still believe my daughter would be alive today," says a man whose 17-year-old was one of 10 people to commit suicide from the bridge in August 2013 alone. Friends and family members of victims held a demonstration outside San Francisco City Hall yesterday, reports the San Francisco Appeal. "The 4-foot railing on the Golden Gate Bridge is the equivalent of a loaded gun in the middle of a mental ward," says one man who survived the fall in 2000. He says that seconds before he hit the water, he changed his mind and decided he wanted to live.