An approach for actions to prevent suicides on commuter and metro rail systems in the United States.

Details

• Creators:
  Botha, Jan L. ; Neighbour, Marissa K. ; Kaur, Satnam
• Corporate Creators:
  Mineta Transportation Institute
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology Administration ; California. Dept. of Transportation. Office of Research
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Rail transit
  • Suicide
  • Prevention
  • Countermeasures
  • Recommendations
  • Surveillance
• Publication/ Report Number:
  CA-MTI-14-1129-2 ; MTI Report 12-33
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  Mineta Transportation Institute
• Abstract:
  The primary goals of this report are to discuss measures to prevent suicides on commuter and metro rail systems, and to outline ; an approach for suicide prevention on rail systems. Based on existing literature and analysis of data obtained from the Metrolink ; system in Southern California, it was found that most suicides occur near station platforms and near access points to the track. ; Suicides occurred most frequently when relatively more trains were in operation and in areas of high population density. There ; do not appear to be suicide “hot spots” (e.g., linked to mental hospitals in the proximity, etc.), based on data analyzed for U.S. ; systems. The suicide prevention measures range from relatively inexpensive signs posting call-for-help suicide hotline information ; to costly platform barriers that physically prevent people from jumping onto tracks in front of trains. Other prevention measures ; fall within this range, such as hotlines available at high frequency suicide locations, or surveillance systems that can report ; possible suicide attempts and provide the opportunity for intervention tactics. Because of the relatively low number of suicides ; on rail systems, as compared to the overall number of suicides in general, a cost-effective strategy for preventing suicides on ; rail systems should be approached in a very focused manner. The prevention measures executed by the rail authorities should ; be focused on the suicides occurring on the rail systems themselves, while the broader problem of suicides should be left to ; community-based prevention efforts. Moreover, prevention measures, such as surveillance and response, could “piggyback” on ; surveillance and response systems used for other purposes on the rail systems to make such projects economically feasible.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  DTRT12-G-UTC21
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/28334/dot_28334_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 572.62 KB]
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers ; US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:e3a15720c96bc601b8a17283b1b3d2fa28b2599c0794b25e3dcf439c319226cc