It's well past time to act on the West Gate Bridge's dark secret

"How could he?" That was one newspaper's disturbing, and horribly naive, headline following Thursday's tragedy on the West Gate Bridge.How could a father allegedly throw her four-year-old daughter to her death in the Yarra River?Already hundreds, maybe thousands, on the online community are baying for the blood of a man likely none would have heard of until that day. Nor cared about.One friend sent me, and presumably dozens of others, a note wondering how anyone in their right mind could do such a thing.But that's the whole point. No one in their right mind would ever do such a thing. If this man has done this terrible thing _ and that is up to a court, not the media nor a Facebook community, to decide _ he was not in any sound, safe place in his own head. That people have reacted this way is understandable. I expect it is the way I might have reacted a number of years ago as well. But it is not fair.I would not claim to understand what this man was thinking at the time this happened, if indeed he was thinking. Thank God, I do not suffer from a debilitating mental illness and am, as best I can manage, responsible for my own actions. But I do have first hand experience of the chaos and uncertainty a mental illness, such as bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia or even garden variety depression, can inflict on a life, and the lives of many around them.Just over five years ago, on a bleak November morning, my young wife drove to the West Gate Bridge and took her own life.I will not use her name here. Her family, still my family in my eyes, has asked me not to. Five years does not erase the pain for any of us.How could she? Some asked at the time how someone with so much going for her could do such a thing. She was pretty, bright, was married to a man who was obviously crazy about her, and had recently moved into our first home. So how could she?But it is the question of a rational mind, asked of someone who is in so much pain that rational thought has been drowned out by fear, or confusion, or despair.The fact my wife did such a thing does not define her life or what sort of person she was. She could be funny, and kind, and angry, and sweet. On that particular morning, she was frightened and told me she was in unbearable pain. Had she survived that day she would have been funny or kind or sweet all over again.Because mental illness is not some nasty flaw that permanently stains a person's character. Like any other illness it ebbs and flows. If this man has had an uncontrollable psychotic episode when this happened, he may wake from that nightmare a sane man, and discover an even more horrific reality. And then the real pain for him will start. I know how hard it is to suffer daily from a sense of guilt and "what if?". How much more so for this man?At times like this we seem to need someone to vent our frustrations at. Someone to blame for Darcey's death.For me it is the people who should have done something about the West Gate Bridge's dark secret. This is not a new thing.While I was driving over the bridge five years ago to identify the body of my wife at the Coronor's Court it struck me as so obvious the railings on the side were like a step ladder for the distressed and suicidal. When I had to visit the Footscray Police over the incident, the young officer said about three people every week take their life falling from the bridge. And few ever hear about it.Whether it is three a week or two or one is not the issue.I contacted my two local members, begging them to do something about making the bridge safer.My Federal MP, Catherine King, saw me. She explained to me it was a State matter and that all she could do was pass it onto the minister concerned, Peter Batchelor. Catherine was sincere and I have no reason to believe she didn't do what she said.My state MP back then, Don Nardella, on the other hand did not bother to get back to me, and his staffer was dismissive of my call to the point of rudeness. To me, Mr Nardella puts a face to the State Government's inaction on this. They didn't care then, and I am not sure how much they care now.I find it fascinating Premier Brumby now says the government is fast-tracking the construction of suicide barriers on the bridge _ that they had been on some kind of to-do list for some time. Apparently such work would cost about $20 million. On the very day I drove across that bridge _ five years ago _ they were installing speed cameras on the bridge, presumable at the cost of millions.Back then I asked the Footscray police officer how many people died in car accidents each year on the West Gate Bridge. He shook his head and said none that he knew of. That sums up this government's priorities to me.