Gorge Bridge records another suicide

TAOS — Around 8 a.m. on March 15, two deputies and Sheriff Steve Miera climbed a steep descent down the gorge to recover the body of a young male adult who jumped from the Río Grande Gorge Bridge.

The man jumped over the railing — a 4-foot-tall obstacle — while visiting the bridge with his family mid-afternoon on March 14. According to Miera, the man’s girlfriend attempted to scale the railing after him, but she was stopped by a guard and transported to Holy Cross Hospital for a behavioral health evaluation.

The bridge has been the site of dozens of suicides since it was built in 1965, averaging between two and three each year. This was the first suicide since Oct. 31, 2021.

Authorities did not immediately provide the identity of the man who jumped.

Recovery

On March 15, Miera and a recovery team made the trek to the bottom of the gorge to recover the body while the man’s family watched from the bridge above, which was closed to traffic. According to the deputies making the descent, the unofficial trail — which they have used for previous incidents of this nature — has eroded over time and has become much more dangerous. They haven’t made this descent since the 2021 jumper.

Once they reached the bottom, they used radio-coms to communicate with deputies on the bridge, who assisted them in determining shallow areas in the river where it would be safe to cross. However, the river was deep that day, and deputies above had to leave to fetch a raft, which was lowered into the gorge with a winch. Once the body was recovered, a gurney was lowered, and the body was extracted from the canyon floor to the bridge’s railing, some 650 feet above.

Overall, the operation took roughly six hours to complete. During a body recovery operation in 2019, former Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe, who now works as Miera’s undersheriff, said body recovery operations such as this cost taxpayers several thousand dollars to complete when accounting for overtime pay and equipment costs, such as the need for a tow truck winch.

Impact on family, tourists

According to Miera, the man’s father made the descent into the gorge and tidied up his son’s body the evening of March 14, straightening the clothes and laying the body flat before rigor mortis set in.

Afterward, the already-exhausted entourage made their way back up the almost vertical slope on the gorge, which they scaled without the assistance of rope while carrying backpacks full of supplies, in addition to their service belts.

The bridge was filled with tourists on spring break when the man jumped, creating a chaotic scene.

Dustin Calhoun, a tourist from out of state, was showing his children the names carved into the bridge railing, the crosses erected by the roadside and the crisis call box, explaining to them the sorrow that the bridge carries with it. After being there for 20 minutes, he said, they heard commotion coming from the other side of the bridge.

“I cannot believe they don’t have something up around it. I mean, they’re gonna have high fences around everything going to [the bridge], and then the bridge itself doesn’t even have [that],” Calhoun said in reference to the tall chicken-wire fence topped with barbed wire that leads up to the bridge.

Calhoun spoke from the east side of the bridge while his wife comforted their two sons, who were both in tears. Nearby, the family of the man who had jumped were also overcome with emotion, and the man’s mother was using a piece of sage to brush her children.

State yet to take action

While the bridge went through 2022 without a single jumper, according to Miera, enforcement and the easy accessibility of the bridge to people with an intention to commit suicide remain concerns.

In 2020, the state hired security guards to staff the bridge to help prevent vandalism and other crime.

Last year, Taos County approved $150,000 to install cameras at the bridge. Despite a 2019 study by the New Mexico Department of Transportation that concluded raised railings would be the most effective way to discourage suicides, so far no action has been taken to build them, and the issue of suicides at the Gorge Bridge wasn’t raised at the New Mexico Legislature this year or last.

How to get help

If you or someone you know is experiencing severe depression or has thoughts of suicide, call one of the following numbers, staffed 24 hours a day, to get help:

• National suicide hotlines: 800-784-2433 (800-SUICIDE) or 800-273-8255 (800-273-TALK)

• New Mexico Crisis and Access Line: 855-622-7474 (855-NMCRISIS)

• Santa Fe Community Guidance Center crisis line: 505-820-6333 or 888-920-6333