Cindy Campbell recently wrote an excellent blog post about being trained for the unexpected after a suicide took place in one of her parking facilities. In the past few weeks, there have been several examples in the news of people threatening to commit suicide by jumping out of parking garages. Thankfully in both cases, the police and authorities were trained for the unexpected.

Andy Troth (CAPP) and I wrote an article [PDF] about suicide for The Parking Professional a few years ago after dealing with suicide jumpers at our own parking facilities. The article outlines why suicide from jumping happens, where suicide from jumping most commonly occurs, how parking professionals should handle this tragic event should it occur in their garage, and how to help prevent suicide from happening. We reached out to some suicide experts, including Lanny Berman, Ph.D., ABPP, executive director with the American Association of Suicidology. What we found is that parking garages are prone to suicide attempts because they provide easy access to great heights, and jumping from great heights offers a high certainty of death. Suicide by jumping from a parking garage affects all market segments especially universities, hospitals and municipalities, so shouldn’t we be prepared?

To learn more on how to handle this situation should it occur in your facility, check out the article or visit IPI’s webinar on the subject.