Trial set in lawsuit over Cornell bridge suicide

ITHACA (AP) — A federal jury will decide whether Cornell University and the City of Ithaca must pay millions of dollars to the family of an 18-year-old Cornell student who jumped to his death from a bridge over a gorge near campus.

The negligence case was brought by Howard Ginsburg, a lawyer and father of Bradley Ginsburg, who died in February 2010. He claims the city and Cornell failed to design the bridge with features to prevent suicides.

The city-owned bridge connects Cornell’s north campus with the main academic area.

Between 1990 and 2010, 29 people attempted suicide by jumping from bridges into Ithaca’s gorges, and 27 succeeded. Within a month after Ginsburg’s suicide, two more Cornell students jumped to their deaths from bridges.

The trial is scheduled to start today in Utica.