What do we know about rail suicide incidents? An analysis of 257 fatalities on the rail network in Great Britain

Abstract

-There are over two hundred and fifty suicides on the railway in Great Britain (GB) each year.Descriptive statistics are compiled, producing national and international data. The industry know how many and, to a limited extent, where these fatalities occur. There is little in-depth analysis of events. Therefore, there are gaps in knowledge of these fatalities and this is a weakness when considering the best approaches to prevention. This paper reports on the analysis of data on 257 suicide events at or near to 51 stations on three rail routes in Great Britain over a 20 year period. The analysis uses data from the industry Safety Management System (SMIS) database and produces simple descriptive statistics on a range of variables, including comparisons across the three rail routes. Additional data from staff and route based documentation have been used to verify, supplement and interpret information in the database.Examples of patterns of immediate and precursor behaviours during incidents have been presented, illustrating the potential to explore both common and anomalous behaviours during events. The findings demonstrate the type of content that can be explored within the industry data and through use of other data that are available within the industry. Commentary is provided on the strengths and weaknesses of the data and how findings from the analysis can be used to improve future data collection and prevention of incidents.2

Factors deterring and prompting the decision to attempt suicide on the railway networks: findings from 353 online surveys and 34 semi-structured interviews

“…Examples include increasing the likelihood (and/or perceived likelihood) of intervention (e.g. via enhanced monitoring, ready access to social support and awareness campaigns/gatekeeper training for rail staff and bystanders such as the recent Small Talk Saves Lives campaign () in the UK) and the presence of physical barriers, both at stations and on open tracks and level crossings (British estimates suggest that between 39 and 70% of rail suicides occur at stations, 22 but in some countries this proportion is significantly lower 1 ). Indeed, restricting access to lethal means has been shown to be effective in reducing suicide, 23 particularly at ‘hotspots’, 24 but may not always be feasible or cost-effective in relation to (large) rail networks 25 …”

Developing a framework of behaviours before suicides at railway locations

“…The second type of data was new information that was collected in structured workshops with staff to understand more about their expert knowledge and experience of public behaviour in these contexts. Outlines of methods and conclusions from preliminary analysis of data from several of these sources have been presented in Ryan (2013) and Ryan (2017). The current study collates and produces detailed findings from reanalysis and synthesis of content.…”

“…The SMIS (Safety Management Information System -http://www.rssb.co.uk/risk-analysis-and-safetyreporting/reporting-systems/smis) database is compiled and updated by rail organisations and transport police and contains a broad range of information on incidents. The analysis draws on data from 257 incidents that have occurred over a 20 year period at 51 stations on three separate rail routes close to London (Ryan, 2017). The data set contains details of the types of behaviours that occur at a range of stations (large and small mainline stations).…”

“…Relevant descriptions of behaviours from different sources (Sections 3.2, 3.3) were extracted and recorded in separate summary tables, providing a corpus of data for further analysis. For example, for the data from SMIS (Section 3.2.1, also in Ryan, 2017), this analysis included grouping of similar behaviours and identifying relevant differences in behaviours (e.g. jumping into the path of the train, as distinct from jumping onto the track to await the arrival of the train).…”

“…For example, the 257 incidents in the industry database commonly contain reports of short term behaviours, observed by train drivers immediately before an impact. The narrative descriptions of behaviours from this source cover all suicides at the selected stations over a twenty year period and therefore give a good indication about the relative frequencies of different types of events, such as the more common modes of access to the track and some of the more unusual suicide events (Ryan, 2017).…”