Professional and medical outcomes for French train drivers after "person under train" accidents: three year follow up study

Abstract

Aims: To investigate psychiatric disorders, somatic health, and professional effects in French train drivers having experienced a ''person under train'' accident, and somatic health and professional effects. Methods: A total of 202 train drivers were evaluated several times: immediately after the event, three months later, and one, two, and three years later. These drivers were compared with 186 train drivers not exposed to that psychotraumatic shock. The evaluations relied primarily on the GHQ-28 and MINI questionnaires. Results: In the exposed group, at the first evaluation, the prevalence of post-traumatic stress was 4%; scores >5 on the GHQ-28 were significantly higher than in the non-exposed group (32% versus 6%), for both the overall result and three sub-scores (somatic symptoms, anxiety and sleep, and psychosocial functioning). All these differences disappeared within a year. Vulnerability factors concerned prior traumas, acute and lasting life events, and the particular occupational situation where the driver is not accompanied but drives the train away alone in the aftermath of the accident. Over 95% of subjects had no short, medium, or long term impairment of their occupational fitness. Conclusions: Most of the psycho-behavioural disorders were observed in the immediate aftermath of the accident and disappeared within a year. The driver's occupational future does not seem to be affected by the ''person under train'' accident. Consideration of a traumatic accident as a job related risk and close psychological support of drivers after an accident probably increase the subject's ability to recover from the event.

Lessons learned from the collaborative European project RESTRAIL: REduction of suicides and trespasses on RAILway property

“…In line with the international literature [2][3][4][5][6], RESTRAIL research has shown that railway suicide and trespassing accidents have far reaching consequences for a wide range of actors and agencies within society (see [17], for more details): amongst them the victims and their families and close associates, train drivers and other witnesses, railway companies, emergency services and passengers. All countries have guidelines and procedures for managing the immediate consequences of railway suicide and trespassing accidents, and in some cases measures to mitigate the onset and development of post traumatic stress disorder amongst affected drivers.…”

“…Railway suicides and trespassing accidents have human and economic consequences with high impact on the whole society. Beyond the human loss, these incidents cause important delays [1] as well as post-traumatic stress to the railway staff [2,3] and discomfort to passengers and bystanders [4][5][6]. These issues are alarming for both governmental authorities and railway companies, which are more and more interested to find cost-effective solutions against railway suicides and trespassing accidents.…”

Effectiveness of Physical Barriers Installation for Prevention of Incidents in Mexico City’s Subway System

“…In the two cases, the negative binomial distribution was given as the best fit. In general, negative binomial distribution describes the probability of failures and successes in + 1 ( ) trials with success on the last trial; see (1). Table 1 shows the values of and parameters.…”

“…For instance, in 2014, at Copilco subway station (Line 3), a pair of friends were under the influence of alcohol, so one of them threw the other to the subway tracks while they were playing. No less important are the homicides or suicides considered as planned acts that cause, on the one hand, high operational costs and delays in conveyors scheduling and, on the other hand, psychological effects on conveyor's drivers and passengers [1,2]. Also fashion in social networks influences the incidents on the subway platform of MCSS.…”

A dimensão do fator humano na segurança ferroviária: estados emocionais do profissional

“…É então fundamental que se valorize que os estados emocionais negativos no trabalho constituem um processo de esgotamento ao longo do tempo por falta de recursos psicológicos, que culmina num estado (designado como burnout) e que implica enorme sofrimento psicológico para o trabalhador e problemas na sua produtividade e qualidade dos serviços prestados (Maslach & Leiter, 2016), incluindo aumento do erro humano nos acidentes. Para tal, são necessários estudos e intervenções sobre a saúde ocupacional dos profissionais da ferrovia, à semelhança de outros países (Cothereau et al, 2004;Cox et al, 2003;Doroga & Baban, 2013;Sage et al, 2016;Vatshelle & Moen, 1997), bem como a criação de programas de prevenção e tratamento direcionados para as necessidades dos profissionais do sector ferroviário, com características distintas de outros trabalhadores. Esta ideia já foi operacionalizada na década de 90 pela British Rail (Williams et al, 1994) …”