$100M suit in GWB suicide
THE WIDOW of a prominent New Jersey architect who leapt to his death from the George Washington Bridge is suing the Port Authority for failing to safeguard the “suicide magnet” span.
Marybeth Donaldson hit the bistate agency with a $100 million lawsuit roughly nine months after her husband Andrew committed suicide.
“Long before Andrew Donaldson’s untimely death, the Port Authority was aware of the extraordinary number of suicides at the bridge and of the significant public and expert demand for suicide prevention barriers to be installed,” the suit says.
Andrew Donaldson, 49, walked along the bridge and jumped off a low railing about 6:35 a.m. on the morning of July 27, 2017.
The suit slams the Port Authority for waiting until September 2017 to set up suicide fencing after roughly 120 people jumped to their deaths in the preceding eight years.
“The action of Andrew Donaldson, like that of scores of other people who attempted suicide from the bridge’s walkways, was reasonably foreseeable to the Port Authority,” says the suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“The Port Authority failed to take obvious steps to address the serious known risk,” it adds.
Donaldson was among five people who committed suicide at the bridge in just a two-month stretch, according to the lawsuit.
The 4,760-foot span saw its first jumper a week after opening in Oct. 1931. “Since then, the bridge has acquired a reputation as a ‘suicide magnet,’” the suit says.
An online obituary described Donaldson, the father of two young girls, as “a gregarious man with an easy wit whose infectious smile seemed as big as his six-foot, two-inch frame.”
He practiced architecture in Manhattan for more than 20 years working at several top firms including Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
The obituary says he contributed to the design of One World Trade Center.
“He embraced his passions for music, food, cycling, golfing, and skiing with the unbridled enthusiasm of a big-hearted kid,” it added. “His love of life was most fully expressed as a husband, father, and uncle.”
The Port Authority declined comment.