The communities of St. Mary's County and Calvert County in Maryland have been repeatedly devastated by the loss of life on Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge. By installing barriers along the sides of the bridge, the number of deaths by suicide would be drastically reduced down to zero. Just one loss of life is one too many.

The author Malcolm Gladwell explores the idea of coupling in one of his books- when someone dies by suicide, it can often be coupled to a particular place. For example, the Golden Gate Bridge, since its opening in 1937, has had more than 1,600 confirmed deaths by suicide. In 2018, more than 80 years after the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge, the municipality responsible for the operation of the Golden Gate Bridge chose to install a suicide prevention barrier. It is in the process of being installed with a completion date for 2024. In the past decade the average loss of life on the Golden Gate Bridge is over 30 per year; while the numbers on the Thomas Johnson Bridge are not that high- why would we wait for the number of deaths to increase to that rate?

By not having the convenient conditions for death by suicide, most people may not follow through if they do not have the convenient conditions. Death by suicide can actually be related to a specific location- just like we've see multiple times a year at the Thomas Johnson Bridge.

If suicide prevention measures were added to the Thomas Johnson Bridge, then families would not have to experience the trauma and tragedy we have seen happen too often recently.