Beyond the endless glare associated with the neon that is bright and the sounds of slots, cocktail cups and sexy encounters, lies a much, much darker and grimmer reality in Sin City: a seldom-reported fact and one which many resort hotels walk out their method to keep from the media is the actual quantity of suicides committed in Las Vegas, sometimes following a last weekend of debauchery and with as many tragic motivations as life itself has to offer. These suicides are never related to something that happened in nevada, brain you; but the City of Neon seems to represent to many people a spot to see life off, for whatever reasons.

In reality, several research reports have discovered that Las vegas, nevada is the # 1 destination of choice for people to kill themselves in the U.S.

Hotels Do What They Can

Obviously, there ‘s no way that is real resorts to stem this steady blast of life lost, as generally the deed is done from inside a hotel room, with as many techniques used as the reasons themselves for the suicides. The one thing resorts can and nearly constantly do is allow it to be extremely difficult to fling oneself from a hotel room window, however; either making them difficult or impossible to open; or making those openings so slim that all however the slightest among us could never fit through the limited area.

But it doesn’t mean tourists on a mission to self-destruct can’t throw themselves over somewhere else, and the story of one woman that is such Phoenix now has her family and others calling out for greater obstacles and stricter security at most obvious of the non-Strip locations: the world-famous Hoover Dam, about 35 miles from the vegas Strip, that offers an unsurvivable fall into rushing water below for anyone who is intent on ending their very own life.

‘ We are in support of providing stronger security precautions during the O’Callaghan-Tillman Memorial Bridge [at Hoover Dam] in the hope that they can deter future tragic occurrences,’ said the family of Heather Price Papayoti, the victim in this latest case. It’s truly not the first death that is self-inflicted the Hoover Dam; in fact, Papayoti is the seventh individual to jump to her death to the Colorado River 900 foot below from the bridge as it opened in October 2010.

Woman Plunges to Her Death

It was simply last week, on January 10, that Papayoti took a cab ride more than 280 miles directly from a Tempe, Arizona behavioral guidance meeting, telling the driver to just take her to the Hoover Dam, where she was somehow able to quickly crawl over a 5-foot barrier railing and jump, just moments before sunset.

Her family members’s granted media statement reflects the despair that they were clearly aware Papayoti who had been married with a daughter have been fighting recently.

‘We are mourning the loss of our heather that is beautiful, child, sister (in law), aunt and friend. We were endowed with her laughter and light for all your full years we shared with her. Sadly the darkness of anxiety and depression consumed her in recent months, and despite treatment, she had been unable to conquer it.’

It will now be up to the Nevada Department of Transportation to help expand explore possible barriers that are improved security measures, as well as show up with an idea therefore the money to finance it, which would come probably from federal highway programs.

These principles are not really new; in fact, ways to discourage suicides were under discussion also before it absolutely was opened, based on region engineer for the Nevada Department of Transportation Mary Martini.

Among the list of possible solutions initially considered had been safety nets and 6 8 foot Plexiglass shields, said Martini; but both were dismissed as either being too tempting for ‘jackass’ type daredevils, or too obscuring associated with view that is magnificent of river for that your pedestrian walkway was being built. Designers were concerned the plexiglass would also grow dull and be a magnet for graffiti artists. Over the top of all that, the expenses would be in the many millions, stated Martini, who also noted that the Federal Highway management might have to accept any such thing along these lines.

Martini says the current five-foot rail was only designed to prevent folks from falling, not to prevent determined jumpers from offing by themselves. As well as in order to jump, individuals like Papayoti must crawl over a 5-foot 6-inch concrete wall to even access that railguard, Martini added.

‘Can you crawl over it? Yes. But if we made the guard rails on the bridge any greater, it would have prevented people from being able to understand dam.

‘I do not think we’re able to engineer enough ways to prevent somebody from committing suicide off the connection,’ she stated. ‘then they’re going to get it done. if somebody is set to take action,’

Extra requests for improved security patrols and a suicide prevention line just like the ones at other major U.S. bridges are also being called for by Papayoti’s family. But no real matter what happens down the road, for one despondent woman, she is now yet another sad statistic in a city that addresses committing suicide as simply another side-effect of being bigger than life itself.