China bridge jumper 'gets a push'

He told police he wanted to kill himself because he was 2m yuan ($293,000 or £184,000) in debt following a failed construction project, the China Daily reported.

Traffic around the bridge was stopped for five hours while officers tried to coax Mr Chen to safety.

Retired soldier Mr Lai at first volunteered to try to talk Mr Chen down but was turned away by police, Xinhua said.

Mr Lai is said to have then broken through the police cordon, climbed to where Mr Chen sat, greeted him with a handshake - and then pushed him off the edge.

Pictures in the China Daily show him saluting to the crowd after Mr Chen fell on to the partially filled emergency air cushion.

"I pushed him off because jumpers like Chen are very selfish," the newspaper quoted Mr Lai as saying.
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There's your answer. Always more to it than appears on the surface.
 
Good for Mr Lai! If the guy wasn't going to jump, then he shouldn't have been there, and holding up all the traffic by dilly-dallying is quite selfish.
 
The bridge has gained a macabre reputation, attracting at least 12 would-be suicide jumpers since the start of April, according to the China Daily report. None of the 12 has jumped...
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Pff, the Chinese are clearly doing it wrong.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
It wouldn't be attempted murder as he knew there was an crash mat at the bottom so he had no intention to kill.
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Chances are good that he did since he offered to talk the guy down but it doesn't confirm that he knew of the air cushion in the story.

The story is a bit confusing, if he was able to shake the would-be jumpers hand then why not just hold onto him and let the police grab him up on the bridge?
 
ManOfTheYear said:
Who did he kill????
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No-one, that's the point of using "attempted", it implies he did not succeed although if the man really desired to kill himself anyway then you'd only be charging Mr Lai with murder because he interrrupted the suicide attempt. Intentions count in law so even if the result is not as you intented the intention can be enough to convict you.

Tefal said:
A huge air cushion isn't exactly hard to notice.
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It might be if you're approaching from the top and can't see through tarmac but it's a fairly minor point, I was just noting that there was no confirmation of his awareness or intentions.
 
semi-pro waster said:
It might be if you're approaching from the top and can't see through tarmac but it's a fairly minor point, I was just noting that there was no confirmation of his awareness or intentions.
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He pushed him 8m down on to the road not over the edge.

The cushion would have been really obvious when you're standing right over it.
 
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