If you were seriously inconvenienced by a suicidal/mentally ill person do you honestly think you could remain compassionate (please read details)?

I was very saddened today to hear that one of the motorways close to where I live has been shut (and will be for the rest of the night I would imagine) because a man in his late 50’s jumped off the motorway bridge and commited suicide. No one else was hurt in his suicide bid but A LOT of people were sat in the cars for hours on the motorway (some may very well still be there).

I read this news on the website of my local paper which also invites people to comment on what they read. I was absolutely disgusted by the amount of people moaning about being stuck in traffic and even worse, calling the man selfish for causing so much inconvenience. It saddened me that there was a huge lack of compassion for someone so deeply troubled.

I realise that many people just wanted to get home after a day at work, some people had children in the car, some may have been hungry or thirsty (although the emergency services did hand out bottled water as well as putting portable toilets up) etc etc but the fact is, these people will be fine. They are slightly inconvenienced (and a don’t pity anyone who has to try and keep kids from getting aggitated in such situations) but once they get home they will get over it pretty quickly. Some poor policeman has to go and tell the family of this poor soul that someone they love has ended their life.

Having been suicidal myself in the past I am always upset by such stories so maybe I am being over sensitive.

What I would like to know is, if you were a driver in this situation do you think you would be able to have any compassion for this man? Please be honest because like I said, I may just be being over sensitive.

I would also like to add that someone who called the police when they saw the man threatening to jump left a comment saying that if they had seen the look in his eyes, no one would be calling him selfish.

Sorry this is so lengthy.