Research Paper for Railroad Operations and Safety Penn State Altoona RTE303 December 14, 2021, Altoona, PA USA RTE303-2021 RAILROAD RELATED SUICIDE: CAUSES AND PREVENTION Connor Cashman 3rd Year Rail Transportation Engineering Student Penn State Altoona 3000 Ivyside Park Altoona PA, 16601 ABSTRACT Any fatality to occur while working on the job is a horrible experience for anyone that may have to suffer through it. These fatalities can be caused through many different means, whether it be trespassing or an accident while working on the job. However, the most gut-wrenching death that can occur on the railroad has to be that of suicide. Suicide is a worldwide tragedy that does not discriminate. It happens in every country, to all types of people, and is an absolute travesty when it occurs. The death is an emotionally scarring event for anyone involved with it. Whether it be the victim’s family, the bystanders that witness it, or the engineers that watch it happen, it’s all horrible and needs solution. A subconscious thought that sits in the back of every railroad engineer mind is the fear of someone jumping in front of their train. It’s well documented that an average train takes at least a mile to stop, which leaves zero reaction time for when someone jumps. What’s worse if having to travel for that mile while witnessing whatever grotesque sight is in front of them. This paper aims to elaborate on why so many people may choose the railroad for suicide. It’s a topic that is often overlooked when discussing railroad related deaths. The prevention of railroad suicide will also be elaborated on. The current prevention methods can be expanded upon to include more suicide prevention tactics. Railroads have been making an effort to prevent trespasser related death, something that railroad suicide relates closely to. Each country is missing some crucial steps that could be taken to help their own prevention techniques, which will be explored later. That is what this paper hopes to shine some light on. The subject of why people choose to commit suicide will not be discussed in this paper. Such a topic is worthy of its own paper in much deeper length. While the topic may be brought up, the primary focus is how it affects railroads, and the steps taken to prevent it. INTRODUCTION More than 40,000 people in the United States die from suicide every year. Of that 40,000, only about 1% commit suicide by railroad. Because of the low percentage, railroad suicide is often overlooked in discussions involving suicide prevention. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) only started researching railroad suicide in 2011. In different parts of Europe, railroad suicide prevention has been taken more seriously due to some celebrity deaths and a smaller railroad. Several studies have been done using locations in Denmark, Germany, and Great Britain. These studies all provided some prevention tips that could be modified to work within the United States. Some choices made in the past were to try and help lower suicidal ideation. Other strategies included implementing more barriers and other forms of protection from rail lines. While most lines are all given some form of protection, not all of it is enough to prevent this kind of trespassing. NOMENCLATURE Railroad Suicide, Suicide Prevention BACKGROUND Railroad suicide is a tragedy that has not been discussed until recent years. The FRA only started researching railroad related suicide deaths in 2011. As mentioned previously, only about 1% of suicides in the United States occur on railroads. The FRA classifies the suicide deaths in their own category, 1 Copyright © 2021 by PSU-RTE outside of the more commonly viewed trespasser deaths. This means that the suicide results are being overlooked even in the railroad operational field. FIG 1. FRA Database For Rail Suicide (Dec 2021) Since the FRA has begun their research, it’s seen that the highest year for fatalities was in 2017, with the lowest being 2021. There appears to be no consistency with the fatality rate within the past ten years. The Covid-19 pandemic could account for the low number of railroad suicides in 2020, 2021, and the latter half of 2019. These suicides are proven to not only have an impact on the families of the deceased, but the railroad workers who must witness it. For the unfortunate engineers and conductors who see the victim, they’re the last person to see that victim alive. Numerous railroad workers have been interviewed about their experiences, and most of them are the same. Many workers that witness the death are susceptible to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the anxiety, insomnia and depression that come from it. Sean Morgan, an engineer working out of San Francisco, described his experience with a suicidal person on the track, stating “I’d hear the sound when I’d try to go sleep” (Elinson 2011). He later stated that in his area, workers are told its not if they hit a person, but when. Conductors don’t have it much easier. Bruce Shelton, a Caltrain conductor for fifteen years, described having to go and clean the train after the incident occurs. Shelton stated, “When I went out to determine what the status was, I found a landscape quite literally of body parts” (Valenti 2014). Different union leaders have spoken about the trauma that these workers have to go through afterwards and many transfer to do lower paying yard work where they won’t have to operate out on the main lines. METHODOLOGY Why Choose Railroads? The causes of why people would choose to commit suicide is a very deep and complex issue that has been researched for decades. In Great Britain, Keely S.E. Duddin and Benjamin Raynes analyzed suicide notes for why people would choose railroads to commit suicide. They found five key reasons for why people would select the railroad as their death. These include an ease of planning, nonhuman relations, certainty, peacefulness, and bereavement. Not much planning is needed when involving railroads as a method. They tend to be consistent and only one open segment is needed. The act of being hit by a moving train leads to a rather impersonal relationship; no loved ones must find the body first, leaving rail staff and police to deal with the aftermath first. However, this reasoning leaves out the multitude of rail workers, passengers and potential bystanders that must witness the tragedy. Another key reason is the certainty of committing suicide by rail. Because of the high fatality rate, many feel like their deaths will be over quickly. That same reason is also chosen for the peacefulness of the death. The last reason relates to a copycat death. If a victim knows someone who had also committed suicide by rail, they may feel enticed to do so themselves. The final reason is also supported by a string of events that occurred in Germany in 2009. Robert Enke, a famous German football (soccer) player, passed away on November 10, from a railroad suicide. The death had national media coverage, and there was a daily increase of suicide by 81% from when compared with previous years. As such, another key reason could be the media attention that such a death gains, leading to copycats. This same reason was elaborated on by the United States Department of Transportation Volpe Center. The Volpe Center has been communicating with irresponsible journalists who post too many details of the death publicly. The Volpe Center has been communicating with stakeholders in the Northeast Corridor to try and control this irresponsible reporting. RESULTS/DISCUSSION Removing Ideation The simplest solution to this problem would be to prevent people from wanting to commit suicide in the first place. Various public awareness campaigns have been authorized in the past to attempt to help suicidal people. Some are done through railroads, and others are general population help. These campaigns have helped provide awareness to suicide hotlines and advertise ways to get help. One of the easiest ways the railroads try to help are with their signage plans. Numerous railroads have implemented signs with helpful information on them for someone who’s feeling suicidal. They often include the phone number for a suicide hot line or contain other hopeful messages. Denmark posted signs with the text, “Is life difficult? We are here to help” and phone numbers for their suicide hotline equivalent. The 2 Copyright © 2021 by PSU-RTE United States followed a very similar approach, with an example of their signs shown in Figure 2. FIG 2. Signage Used by Caltrain These signs have proven to be somewhat effective, but only in the case that the suicidal person manages to see the signs. In areas where there aren’t any signs posted, other preventions must be taken. Physical Prevention When discussing suicide prevention, an imperative step is where the suicides might take place. Duddin and Raynes compared where suicide notes said the suicide would take place versus the British Transport Police’s reports. The main point from this discovery is that a majority of suicides occur at the station platform and the lineside, both of which have immediate access to the railroad lines. As such, one method of suicide prevention would be a way to prevent the immediate access to the railroad lines. The main way to prevent immediate access to the railroad lines, outside of stations, would be fencing. The United Kingdom already has most of its lines fenced, due to older laws that were made to protect cattle. However, this fencing appears to not have a major impact on the suicide rate in the United Kingdom. The United States does have some fencing along its railroad lines, but its main purpose is to keep out trespassers, not suicidal people. It is also largely impractical to try and fence all the lines in the United States, due to how much track there is. Installing fences at hotspots could potentially help, but the fences could also be vandalized rather quickly. The fences have worked in other cases, such as the Grafton Bridge in Auckland, New Zealand. These barriers were proved to lower suicide rates, when they were briefly removed, and the rates increased five-fold. After the reinstallation, the rates returned to normal. Besides the Grafton Bridge, there isn’t much information regarding the effectiveness of fencing preventing railroad suicide, but it has proven effective for keeping trespassers out of certain areas such as railyards, Prevention at Platform As shown in Figure 3, the station platform is the most likely spot for a railroad suicide to occur. Railroads across the world have acknowledged this and have set up precautions. The most visible form of prevention at the platform is the Platform Edge Doors (PEDs). These doors are specially built to prevent any access to the train lines, and only open when the trains arrive at the station. However, the PEDs are mainly only applied at underground stations. While not installed at many stations, the ones they are installed at prove to be an incredibly reliable service. The PEDs prevent the suicidal person from being able to climb over and reach the tracks, or at least make it more difficult to do so. Along with this, PEDs shown to have various other uses, such as preventing debris from getting kicked onto the station by a train and help reduce the cold/warm air from the outside. FIG 3. Characteristics of suicide notes and authors versus BTP's railway fatality database 3 Copyright © 2021 by PSU-RTE possible to set these speed restrictions in hot spots where suicides occur, such as under bridges or on open sections of track. Track surveillance is another common way of helping prevent suicide attempts. This method relies on the security cameras, sensors, or speakers in the area to keep track of suspicious looking individuals. A system was implemented on a bridge in Pittsford, New York to mixed results. The main criticism came form the large amounts of false alarms that the system picked up, nearly twice as many as the positive alarms. However, this same system may have saved five lives on three different occasions. FIG 4. Platform Edge Doors Blue lights are another notable addition to platform safety. Blue LEDs are placed at the ends of station platforms to try and turn people away from committing suicide. The lights use the psychology behind blue as a calming color and may help in preventing someone’s suicidal ideation. These lights are very common in Japan, where railroad suicides are much more common. Denmark also implemented these as motion sensor lights that go off when someone gets too close to the edge of the platform. The study in Japan showed an 87% decrease in railroad suicides among the station it was planted in. An additional benefit was a lowering season depression among riders. However, due to the small sample size, it’s unknown how effective these lights would be if implemented into US train networks. Anti-suicide pits are used on roughly half the stations on the London Underground. Originally built for drainage, these pits have proven to have a second life in preventing suicide fatalities. Many people who have attempted suicide by falling have reported second thoughts as they were falling. These pits help someone who’s fallen lie down underneath the tracks, rather than on top of it. They’ve proven to be very effective in London for not just suicidal people, but also people to fall onto the tracks. A study from 1996-1997 showed that of the 58 falls onto railroad tracks monitored, stations with the pits had a fatality rate of 44%, while those without had a 75% fatality rate. These pits could be potentially implemented in the United States subway services. Other Methods As far as other methods are concerned, the speed restrictions are a very common form. Speed restrictions are already set in stations for the purpose of assisting passengers. If someone falls carelessly onto the tracks, or tries to commit suicide, the train would be able to stop much quicker than if it were going at its regular speed. This has proven effective in preventing fatalities in collisions with cars and cyclists, but is unknown how it would effect someone on the tracks. It’s CONCLUSION Suicide is a national tragedy that should be prevented at all possible costs. It not only affects those who may personally know the victim but scars the innocent rail workers who have no choice but to witness it. Railroad suicide is described as a rail workers worst nightmare for very good reasons. The United States could improve its own systems greatly though implementing these observed practices from international examples. Perhaps they could improve upon what other countries have been doing, or maybe even pursue development of unique ways of suicide prevention. For the sake of the innocent workers, and the people who feel as though this is their only option, this kind of prevention has to be implemented and expanded upon. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to thank the Penn State Altoona Rail Transportation Engineering program for allowing this research into railroad suicide, REFERENCES [1] Baumert J, Kunrath S, Ladwig KH. (2011, August 5). SP3-73 Increase of Railway Suicides in Germany after the Railway Suicide Death of Robert Enke, a Famous German Football Player. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health [2] Chase S, Doucette A, Gabreee SH, Martina M. (2014, November 1). Countermeasures to Mitigate Intentional Deaths on Railroad Rights-of-Way: Lessons Learned and Next Steps. United States. Federal Railroad Administration. Office of Research and Development [3] Duddin, K. S. E., & Raynes, B. (2021, August 24). Why Choose the Railway?: An Exploratory Analysis of Suicide Notes From a Sample of Those Who Died by Suicide on the Railway. The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention. 4 Copyright © 2021 by PSU-RTE [4] Erlangsen, A., la Cour, N., Larsen, C. Ø., Karlsen, S. S., Witting, S., Ranning, A., Wang, A. G., Ørnebjerg, K., Schou, B., & Nordentoft, M. (2021, November 11). Efforts to Prevent Railway Suicides in Denmark: A Pilot Study. The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention. [6] Valenti K. (2014, August 11). Deaths on the Rails Haunt Engineers, Conductors. USA Today [7] Volpe Center. (2020, October 14). Rail Suicide Prevention Resource Page. U.S. Department of Transportation [5] Elinson Z. (2011, December 10). For the Engineer, a Death on the Tracks Means Horrifying Memories. The New York Times 5 Copyright © 2021 by PSU-RTE