Horrified drivers watched the man leap over railings on the Erksine Bridge during evening rush hour yesterday, sparking a desperate rescue attempt involving two helicopters.

The victim was pulled from the water around half an hour later and rushed to Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital,

but doctors declared him already dead.

Police said they were treating the incident as suicide, and were trying to trace the family of the victim, who has not yet been named.

Residents of the area are still reeling from the deaths of Neve Lafferty, 15, and her friend Georgia Rowe, 14, who leapt off the bridge on October 4 after running away from the Good Shepherd Centre for troubled girls.

Only a handful of people have survived the 125ft plunge from the Erskine Bridge into the River Clyde below, and there have been repeated calls for more stringent safety measures.

Clydebank East community council leader Joe Henry last night called on authorities to take “immediate, urgent action, right now” in the wake of the latest death at the notorious suicide hotspot.

“The handrail is just three feet high. It is ludicrous. They should put a barrier, or safety nets there,” he told The Herald.

“This is going to be an ongoing problem until something’s done. If a barrier made somebody turn back, then maybe they’d have a change of heart.

“If it saved even a couple of lives it would be worth it.”