the skyway jumperpool winners list.

05.25.98

05.26.98, © St. Petersburg Times, Year's 10th Skyway suicide reported; St. Petersburg;
A woman apparently jumped to her death from the Sunshine Skyway early Monday evening, officials said.
Hillsborough County sheriff's officials said the body of a white female in her mid-40s was recovered by a private boater shortly after she jumped from the bridge about 7:30 p.m.
The death was the 10th suicide from the bridge this year.
A witness on the bridge saw the woman jump and reported it within minutes, said sheriff's Deputy B. Bryan. He said the victim had been identified, but officials were withholding that information pending notification of the woman's relatives.

05.27.98, © St. Petersburg Times, Monday's Skyway suicide identified; St. Petersburg, Fla.;
Correction (5/28/98): The woman who jumped to her death Monday off the Sunshine Skyway bridge was Stephanie Lee Banasiak. Her name was misspelled in a story Wednesday. A woman who jumped to her death Monday from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge has been identified as Stephanie Leigh Banasiak, of (address withheld), Bradenton. Banasiak, 45, parked at the top of the southbound lane on the bridge about 6:50 p.m. and jumped over the railing, Hillsborough sheriff's deputies said. An unidentified boater pulled her from the water and took her to a marina.

05.27.98, © St. Petersburg Times, 10 times too many, they chose Skyway
Stephanie Lee Banasiak, 45, rented a 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier on Monday afternoon at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport.
I do not know why she chose a Chevrolet Cavalier, or why she did the things that she did afterward.
At about 7:30 p.m., she was driving south on Interstate 275, toward her home in Bradenton. At the top of the Sunshine Skyway, she pulled her car onto the shoulder and got out.
It is a glorious and scary view. Over your right shoulder you can see St. Petersburg, and the white outline of Tropicana Field. Behind your back, far to the east, if the sky is not too hazy, you can see the skyline of downtown Tampa.
The deck of the bridge shudders menacingly under the weight of passing cars. A steady, strong breeze whips your hair as you stand there under the giant, graceful web of the bridge cables, 200 feet above the water. Look straight down and the tiny whitecaps seem deceptively close; only when you raise your eyes and look around do you realize how high up you are.
The sun was within an hour of setting, and low in the western sky, when Stephanie Lee Banasiak stopped her car, got out, got up on the concrete wall, which is only about 3 1/2 feet tall, and jumped.
She was the 10th person to die after jumping from the Skyway so far this year, which is not yet half over.
In all of last year, eight people did it.
The year before that, there were six.
I talked Tuesday to some good people at the Crisis Center of Hillsborough County (the center of the bridge, from which most people jump, is in Hillsborough). I asked them if publicity about these deaths encourages copycats.
They said that here is what needs to be publicized:
Anyone who has read or heard about these things happening on the Sunshine Skyway, and who feels desperate enough to follow, should take one more second, one more minute, and dial an easy telephone number first.
The number is 234-1234.
"Suicide is a very permanent solution to a temporary problem," Bev Hanney, a spokeswoman for the crisis center, said sadly Tuesday afternoon.
"They just for the moment feel so hopeless," Hanney said. "That's why it's so important to let this community know that there is a resource. It's free. It's confidential. It's anonymous."
That's 234-1234.
The crisis center is working with GTE to install crisis telephones atop the bridge. There already are 18 telephones along the 4.1-mile span to link motorists to road assistance, but none are exactly in the right spot.
More problematic is whether the Department of Transportation can install a fence or some other sort of barrier to make jumping harder. The waist-high concrete wall is no obstacle.
The department is looking at what others have done to make bridges less accessible. That will be finished in about 60 days. But any remedy is likely to be expensive and complicated - and not, so far, in any budget.
The Skyway is a bit of an orphan, geographically speaking. It links Pinellas and Manatee counties, but lies in Hillsborough. There are no voters or taxpayers there; no feeling of political responsibility that would spur one mayor or another, one county commission or another, one local legislator or another, to lead the way.
So we wait for studies, while the crisis center works with GTE to at least put a telephone in the right spot, to give those who stop there one more chance.
In the meantime . . .
In the meantime, for those who go to the Skyway, intending to do this final thing, the only "one more chance" will come from themselves.
Please, please make this promise:
Before you go, before you even get in the car, dial this number. It's 234-1234. Do it.

05.06.98 • shasta, the skyway jumping dog.

dog jumps over the edge after his master - master dies, dog lives - 05.07.98
dog lovers clamor to take shasta home - 05.08.98
shasta the dog going home again - 05.09.98
shasta the skyway dog plays role in picking new owner - 05.12.98
home quest resumes for dog hurt in bridge fall - 05.15.98
skyway dog finds a new home - 07.30.98

06.07.98, © St. Petersburg Times, News leads TV through an ethical maze, Man dies, dog survives; how to cover?
The first challenge presented itself early in the month, springing from the May 6 suicide of John Radd, a Lakeland area man who took his life by jumping off the Sunshine Skyway bridge with his dog, Shasta.
Immediately, a conflict emerged between area news outlets' general aversion to covering suicides and the almost made-for-TV poignancy of a dog that survived its owner's fatal plunge from a bridge that has been the site of 10 suicides in 1998 alone.
Eventually, most TV news shops pressed ahead in covering the plight of Shasta, the Rottweiler that survived the 197-foot-fall, only to become the subject of a brief custody battle between two friends of Radd, each of whom claimed a connection to the animal.
In the process, some people wondered: Has the media's aversion to the details of suicide created a situation where we hear more about the dog that survived than the man who died?
Melissa Klinzing, news director at Bay News 9, the 24-hour cable news channel, says focusing on the dog emphasized survival rather than death, giving viewers the sense they could still get involved by helping Shasta.
"If it was a story about an institution, like a school, it's hard for people to think 'I can fix that tomorrow,' " she says. "But (helping the dog) is a pretty redeeming thing we can do right away."
But Steve Schwaid, director of news and production at UPN affiliate WTOG-Ch. 44, has a blunter view: "There's an old axiom in TV news, and I'm not saying it's right, but it says you can always keep the viewer with kids and pets.
"There's something brutally wrong with this society when we're more worried about dogs than (people)."
The media's aversion to covering suicides has a long history, based on the idea that part of what prompts such actions is a desperate cry for attention.
"It's an interesting psychological state potential suicides are in . . . and there's evidence that (media coverage) triggers rather than dissuades them," says Jay Black, the Poynter/Jamison endowed chairman of media ethics at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg.
But Patricia Daly, development supervisor at Personal Enrichment Through Mental Health Services - a Pinellas Park-based agency that helps counsel individuals considering suicide - suggests media coverage that doesn't downplay or ignore suicides but that emphasizes alternatives for those on the edge.
"(The media) is in a position to say, 'Here's what the warning signs are' . . . or ask 'What has been done to make it more difficult for people to park their cars and jump?,' " Daly says. "A lot of times, people don't know . . . there's help out there."
(In that spirit, here is the number for the 24-hour help line offered by Daly's office: 791-3131.)

06.12.06, Deb B., St. Petersburg, FL., A dog survived about 5 years ago, it wasn't clear if he followed his master or was forced. He (a golden retriever I think) ended up at Tampa Bay Veterinary Emergency where I worked. The dog died of cancer a few years later.