Skip to content

Crisis phones installed on Alex Fraser Bridge

Phones will connect callers to Fraser Health’s crisis line
8860131_web1_copy_171010-BPD-M-alex-fraser-crisis-phone-1096
Six crisis phones have been installed on the Alex Fraser Bridge. (Katya Slepian/Black Press)

If you’ve crossed the Alex Fraser Bridge recently, you might have seen what looks like three yellow boxes attached to the railing on each side.

The transportation ministry has installed six new crisis phones on the bridge; two midspan and four at each end.

For now, they are not operational and remain covered in caution tape. The ministry said they will be activated in the coming weeks.

A ministry statement noted that callers “will be connected to the Surrey crisis centre for emotional support” and that the new phones are an ongoing effort in the province’s effort to help with suicide prevention.

Crisis phones have been in place for nearly a decade on the Lions Gate Bridge and were more recently installed on the Ironworkers Memorial, Second Narrows and Burrard Bridge.

According to the Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre of BC, individuals jumping off the Burrard, Granville, Ironworkers, Lions Gate and Pattullo bridges accounted for 50 per cent of suicide deaths by jumping between 1991 and 2007.

8860131_web1_171010-BPD-M-alex-fraser-crisis-phone-1123
Six crisis phones have been installed on the Alex Fraser Bridge. (Katya Slepian/Black Press)
8860131_web1_171010-BPD-M-alex-fraser-crisis-phone-1093
Six crisis phones have been installed on the Alex Fraser Bridge. (Katya Slepian/Black Press)
8860131_web1_171010-BPD-M-alex-fraser-crisis-phone-1099
Six crisis phones have been installed on the Alex Fraser Bridge. (Katya Slepian/Black Press)