Suicides at Gas Stations Reach All Time High

Suicides occurring at or around gas stations has reached an all time high, according to statistics taken by the National Gas Research Panel last week, as the price of gas has rose steadily nationwide, topping $4 a gallon. The NGRP conducted a survey of 2,000 gas station owners across the lower 48 states and asked them how many people have died on their station's property. Nearly half of the gas stations surveyed reported at least one fatality at or around their station, while four in five stations reported at least one attempted suicide in the last 90 days. The numbers indicate a 74% increase in gas station deaths since the end of last year.

Experts suspect the rise is probably due to many factors, primarily the high cost of filling the tank in an economy still running on empty. Still other factors in gas station suicides may have nothing to do with prices at all. An average of 330 people die each year from smoking while pumping gas, ending their lives with a bang. There is no way to know for sure whether such people are suicidal or just plain stupid for their reckless behavior. But their deaths are factored into the latest study. Also, a couple hundred thousand people die or are seriously wounded each year after they forget to remove the gas nozzle from their vehicle. With luck these people merely end up replacing a lost gas cap. But a few less fortunate pumpers pull the entire gas filled hose off the pump and drag it behind them as it leaks a gasoline trail to their house, and are at some point burned by gas vapors and utterly humiliated in front of their entire town.

Experts disagree over how many deaths can be ruled suicides, as well. As Norman Fuller, a self proclaimed Gas Expert (backed up with testimony from his wife) points out, some deaths are most likely natural. "A lot of these fellers are just dropping dead from heart attacks once they see the price on the pump," says Fuller. "There's no resuscitation for $4.29 a gallon."

At least one person in the study didn't attempt suicide because of the price of gas. A gas station in Sioux City, Iowa reported an attempted suicide of a man riding a bicycle, after he discovered that he must pay $1 for air to pump up his tires. He tried shooting himself with the air gun, to little avail as he refused to put a dollar in the machine in the first place.

With prices expected to continue rising, so too will the suicides, most fear. Suicide hotlines are getting ready for the summer drivers, and doctors across the nation are anticipating a volatile forecast for their patients, urging most to prescribe double the anti-depressant medication for those who drive any vehicle that gets less than 20 mpg. The news is not without a bright side, however. Rising gas prices have prevented some suicidal people from killing themselves. The NGRP reported that as many as 91 people have been saved from self inflicted death inside their garages because their cars have ran out of gas before they'˜ve been asphyxiated.

The NGRP's study took place over the course of three weeks. All major oil companies have claimed the study has an anti-oil bias while most companies have doubled their profits from last year.