Family members and friends of suicide victims who died jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge gathered at the steps of San Francisco City Hall today to urge the building of a suicide barrier on the bridge. 
 
 “I don’t want any of our loved ones or future loved ones to go through this,” Manuel Gamboa, whose son Kyle jumped to his death from the bridge in September, said as he fought back tears. 
 
 “This barrier, whether a net or fence, needs to be there,” Gamboa said. 
 
 In 2010, the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District board of directors approved a safety net proposal. However, there is no timeline for building the barrier and advocates say the process has been delayed by bureaucratic red tape. 
 
 The bridge district, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Caltrans are paying for the $66 million project, though a funding plan has not been determined. 
 
 Golden Gate Bridge spokeswoman Mary Currie said a final design for the net will likely be completed in the next few months, despite the question of who will pay for the net. 
 
 “Lots of conversations are occurring,” Currie said. “It is something that we’re talking about at the regional and state level in terms of finding funding. The fact that we’re having these discussions makes it a priority.” 
 
 MTC spokesman John Goodwin echoed Currie, saying the net is a priority for the commission as well. 
 
 Goodwin added that the MTC has already contributed $5 million for the net’s design. 
 
 But San Francisco Supervisor David Campos says that’s not enough. 
 
 “A safety net should have been put in place years ago,” Campos said. “Let’s not haggle over who pays for what. The goal should be to get the net up as quickly as possible.” 
 
 Working out the costs is tricky because the MTC has never dealt with this type of project before, Goodwin said. 
 
 “How do you come up with $66 million for a unique project?” 
 
 Goodwin said. “It’s a big challenge.” 
 
 Nicolas Aparicio’s daughter Gabri became one of 10 confirmed suicide victims who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge in August, the most suicides the bridge has seen in a month since its completion in 1937. 
 
 Aparicio said today he believes his daughter’s suicide was an impulse and if there had been a suicide barrier on the bridge, his daughter would still be alive. 
 
 When his daughter went missing, Aparicio tracked her cellphone to a parking lot next to the Golden Gate Bridge. There, he found her car with a parking ticket on the windshield. But he couldn’t locate his daughter. 
 
 Aparicio said his daughter sent a questionnaire to an exchange student just a half-hour before she jumped to her death. 
 
 “I’m convinced she acted on impulse,” Aparicio said. “If it wasn’t for the easy access at the bridge, my daughter would still be alive.” 
 
 Advocates for the barrier say eliminating the option to jump from the bridge could save the lives of those who contemplate jumping. 
 
 “By removing the means for suicide, you remove the temptation,” said Meghan Freebeck, development director for San Francisco Suicide Prevention. 
 
 Kevin Hines, who survived the fall after jumping from the bridge in 2000, changed his mind seconds before hitting the water and decided he wanted to live. 
 
 Hines said it’s too easy for those who are not mentally fit to take their own lives at the bridge. 
 
 “The 4-foot railing on the Golden Gate Bridge is the equivalent of a loaded gun in the middle of a mental ward,” he said. 
 
 Retired Marin County Coroner Ken Holmes said that in 2013, there were 46 confirmed suicides at the Golden Gate Bridge, the highest number in a year he can ever remember. 
 
 To date, there have been about 1,600 confirmed suicide deaths from the Golden Gate Bridge – more than at any other location in the world, according to the Bridge Rail Foundation, a group organized to prevent suicides on the bridge. 
 
 Laura Dudnick, Bay City News ||||| 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."
– 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.