The Sea Lion & The Guy Who Jumped Off The Golden Gate Bridge
Cal Fussman’s 2-Minute Takeway
Eighteen years ago, on September 25th, a young man named Kevin Hines got on a bus in San Francisco that was headed toward the Golden Gate Bridge.
I don’t have the time to supply his full background because it’s hard to fit a very long story into a two-minute takeaway. But trust me: Kevin is intelligent, very well-meaning and he makes the world a better place. He also has bipolar disorder.
So there he was, 19 years old, sitting on that bus, crying, and hoping that one person would notice his tears, approach him and ask:
Are you okay?
Is there something wrong?
Can I help you?
If one person approached him, he decided, he wouldn’t go through with it. Apparently, this is a pattern among many people contemplating suicide. They’re looking for one person to pay attention. That one person can stop them.
Nobody approached Kevin. One man on the bus looked at another, pointed at Kevin with his thumb, and said: “What the hell is wrong with that kid?”
When the bus stopped, all the other passengers got off and the driver called out: “C’mon kid, you gotta go!”
Walking down the two steps of that bus felt longer to Kevin than a marathon. He headed toward the Golden Gate Bridge, and paced it for about 40 minutes.
A woman from abroad, a blonde from Europe, approached Kevin and said: “Vill you take my picture?”
Maybe she sensed something. Maybe she didn’t. One thing is certain. If she hadn’t stopped and asked, the outcome might have been very different.
She handed Kevin her camera and posed. Kevin took the photos and returned the camera. She thanked him and went on her way.
That’s when Kevin catapulted himself over the bridge.
He fell 220 feet — roughly the height of a 25-story building — in four seconds, praying on the way down, because as soon as he went over he realized he’d made the biggest mistake of his life.
He hit the water at 75 miles per hour and was sucked under 70 feet. His lower vertebrae were fractured, his legs weren’t working, and he propelled himself to the surface using only his arms, gasping for air.
Oh, I forgot to mention that Kevin has asthma.
There are no definitive numbers on how many people have died jumping off that bridge. People who collect and release these statistics say 1,700. Others claim the total is much higher. It appeared that Kevin was going to be added to the list because he didn’t seem to have the strength to remain on the surface. And even if he did, the water is so cold under that bridge that hypothermia sets in after 15 minutes.
Amid his struggle to remain afloat, Kevin felt something circling around him. Suddenly, it didn’t matter how cold the water felt or how much trouble breathing he was having because Kevin sensed he was about to be eaten by a shark.
It came closer and closer and got underneath him.
But it didn’t bite him. It gently nudged him to the surface and held him there.
It wasn’t a shark.
For a long time, Kevin didn’t know what it was.
But a man on the bridge who’d watched Kevin fall saw what it was.
It was a Sea lion.
Within 12 minutes of the jump, a Coast Guard rescue team got to Kevin and pulled him out of the water. Kevin became one of only a handful of people to have survived the fall from The Golden Gate Bridge who can still walk and run.
For much of the time since that day 18 years ago, Kevin has devoted himself to stopping suicide. He fought to get a barrier constructed under the bridge to deter people from jumping. In a few years, that barrier will be in place.
If that tourist had not approached Kevin and asked him to take those photos, perhaps the Sea lion would’ve been in a different spot — and this story never would have been told.
The takeaway is: If you see somebody in distress, try to lift yourself to the level of that Sea lion.
The National Suicide Prevention Hotline number is: 1–800–273–8255.
