… not.
I live in an apartment building that has a sister building a block away. A sister building where my friend Kyle lives.
Our respective buildings are old factory/warehouses that have been turned into loft style apartments.
One feature of Kyle’s building is that it has 7 floors with the entire middle of the building being an open atrium of original wooden beams and a skylight.
It’s kind of cool looking, yet also vertigo enducing for me. I hate heights and when I’m near the railing I can’t help envisioning falling over.
It makes my stomach oogy.
And yesterday’s events won’t help that much.
Because yesterday, a woman committed suicide by flinging herself over the 7th floor railing.
Apparently she made a bit of a mess upon landing.
Rumor has it this woman was married and had a small child. And it is also rumored that she was first discovered immediately afterward by her husband.
Very sad.
And also very thought provoking for me.
Why did she do it? And why by jumping? Falls of over 35 feet are pretty much fatal, but not without pain, right?
Where she landed was near the elevators, which is near the rental offices. Did they hear the body hit?
How could they not?
And then I got morbidly curious.
How fast was she going when she hit?
Well physics dictates that a body’s instantaneous velocity is: v=sqroot[2xgxdistance]
Assuming a fall of 70 ft, with g (gravitational acceleration) being 32 ft per second per second, then translating the answer to mph…
She was going about 45 when she hit.
Which is bad, but would that kill you instantaneously? Or would you suffer for awhile in your broken body, like in a bad car accident?
And how long did the fall take?
Physics again: t=sqroot[(2xdistance)/g]
Using a height of 70 feet, her trip down took a bit over two seconds.
Two seconds. 45 mph.
And a life extinguished.
It kind of makes one think…
…think that leaping to one’s death is not a good way to shuffle off this mortal coil.
Which then made me think about the poor souls at the World Trade Center who felt they had no option but to jump.
Due to wind resistance, they most likely maxxed out at 120 mph. Which they reached after about 6 seconds.
Total fall time was probably around 8.
8 seconds isn’t a very long time- except to a bull rider.
I definitely don’t think it’s long enough for a person to die BEFORE impact.
This makes my heart heavy.
I know I’ll probably think about a lot of this stuff when I visit Kyle’s building (which is quite often).
After all, I will have to walk right over our mini “ground zero”.
Mangina Monologues 
Wow. That is very heavy. Sorry to hear this. It’s so sad when that is the only option left for someone. Hugs.
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Sad, but I can’t help thinking about the person who has the responsibility to clean up the messy aftermath of the plunge.
Here’s the other the to consider. It isn’t so much the speed itself that kills you but the rapid deceleration from 45MPH to 0MPH. That energy has to go somewhere and the body just gets broken apart by it.
That said, if I ever have to suicide I obviously will want to leave a fairly good looking corpse so it’ll be a CNS drug.
I think if people really honestly knew what affects suicide has on other people around them, directly and indirectly, there would be less of it. I was close to someone who slit their wrist in front of me years ago and it affects me to this day. Not fun stuff….
Sadder still, imagine how desparate this poor soul was to commit suicide in that manner…sad!
Not a good day…for anyone. Very sad, especially for those left behind.
WOW.. I am scared of heights as well. However back in November I tried jumping off a bridge.. Obviously I couldnt bring myself to do it, and after reading this Im more aware of why and how I never could do this.
Boy. She she sure showed him.
sad…wonder what drove this woman to take her life…spouse…kids…post-partum depression…perhaps dr. spo (or someone like him) could have helped her seek treatment…
I am also scared of heights (shudders).
Math is fun!