It’s not a new story, but a new take on an old one. USA Today says that at least a couple hundred people made the horrific choice of jumping to their deaths from the World Trade Center, rather than dying by suffocation or burning.

What struck me in the story, however, was this sentence:

Many south tower survivors say the sight of people jumping created an urgency that caused them to leave immediately and ignore announcements that it was safe to return to their desks. About 1,400 people evacuated the upper floors before the second jet hit.

While it wasn’t their intent, the jumpers, in choosing to jump, may have saved many hundreds more in the South Tower.