Ominous signs

What happened the other day inside SM City is something that could happen to other malls everywhere. I am talking about the man who jumped to his death from the third floor of the mall.

What did he do? He climbed the railings and then jumped to his death. He could not have lived considering the height from where he jumped. He was able to do it because of the design of the building.

I think to speed up the construction and save on costs, mall owners merely put railings on one side of the floor level and put glass as wall material. The higher you go the more dangerous the design of the floor is epecially for children during stampedes and makes it vulnerable to the commission of suicides like what happened the other day.

This is not the first time that somebody died from falling from these railings. It happened years ago when a child fell from the higher level of a mall, which was an accident.

Ome more thing. Because of the people that usually crowd malls, I am sure that many people, invluding children, saw what happened. It must have been a traumatic experience for them. That is why mall owners and the government should not gloss over what happened. They should rethink the design of malls and find ways to make it safer.

I remember when the first Mactan-Mandaue bridge was still a bit new and it became the favorite site from where those who want to kill themselves jump. I think some of the incidents were copycat suicides, at least in the choice of a venue.

With the incident the other day, expect others to look for malls where they could jump to their deaths. That is what I mean when I said that the recent suicide incident is not the first time. Mall owners should therefore take it as a warning.--