Go Ahead… Jump!
So, er… she did. Disc jockey Steve Penk has been slammed by mental health groups after playing the Van Halen hit moments before a suicidal woman leapt from a bridge.
Penk was in the middle of his breakfast show on 96.2FM The Revolution – the local station for Oldham, Rochdale, Tameside and surrounding areas – when several lanes of the M60 motorway had to be closed because of the incident.
As cops tried to persuade the woman not to do anything stupid, a listener phoned in to request Van Halen’s Jump.
Penk played the song after expressing his sympathy for road users. The woman then jumped from the 30ft bridge.
She only suffered minor injuries but the DJ has been slammed for his actions.
A spokesman for The Samaritans said: “It shows a lack of compassion and understanding.”
Mind said it was in “very poor taste”.
Penk responded: “The entire area had been thrown into total chaos by a single troubled woman.
“If, as has been suggested, the woman jumped because she heard it [the Van halen song] from a passing car radio that’s unfortunate. But I don’t regret playing it for a minute.”
It could have been worse – Penk might have aired Ozzy’s Suicide Solution straight after!
Good job he didn’t play anything by Shaggy !!
Ah bollocks to PC sensitivity, give us the rock ‘n’ roll!
Mental illness is not a laughing matter. It is not PC sensitivty it is basic human kindness. So, Agent Robbo let’s hope you never need help and come up against an asshole like youself.
That shiity song makes me wanna off myself every time I hear it. What a waste of time that crappy song is.
I have to agree with the anti-PC brigade here. As Penk rightly points out, would this woman really have been able to hear a snippet of the song from a passing car? Did she have her ear glued to a radio on the off chance it might guide her decision? Would it have made a difference if he’d played the Girls Aloud song Jump instead?
Totally agree with above, but Penk always was a complete and utter twat.