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:
  Countermeasures Prevention Rail Transit Recommendations Suicide 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.
  
  
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  DTRT12-G-UTC21
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:e3a15720c96bc601b8a17283b1b3d2fa28b2599c0794b25e3dcf439c319226cc
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/28334/dot_28334_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 572.62 KB ]