Proceedings of the 2014 Global Level Crossing Symposium

PDFResearch PaperGLXS2014-1040SuicideCountermeasuresSafety educationSafety campaignsRailroad safetyTrespassersWarning devicesTraining programsDetection and identification systemsHuman factorsUnited StatesGabree, ScottChase, StephanieDoucette, AnnCoplen, MichaelJohn A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)George Washington UniversityUnited States. Federal Railroad AdministrationAGR-SAFETY AND SECURITY-SAFETY AND SECURITYNTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-RAIL TRANSPORTATIONNTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-Rail SafetyNTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-Rail Planning and PolicyNTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Human FactorsNTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Rail SafetyNTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-SAFETY AND SECURITYVolpe National Transportation Systems Center, Technical Reference CenterIn 2010, 38,364 individuals intentionally ended their lives in the United States (US).1 It is estimated that less than 1% of these individuals took their life on the railroad rights-of-way. Despite the infrequency of this type of event they can have a great impact not only for the individual involved and their family and friends, but also for train crews, first responders, and bystanders. The railroad carriers also experience impact from these incidents through scheduling delays, and the potentially debilitating physical and psychological effects on those involved in the incident.Suicides on the railroad rights-of-way represent a large proportion of all railroad fatalities. In 2012, 242 fatalities on the railroad rights-of-way were determined by a coroner or medical examiner to be suicides. During that same time period, the railroad industry experienced 429 trespasser fatalities and 192 grade crossing fatalities that were not determined to be suicides, indicating that suicides were the second leading cause of death on the railroad rights-of-way in 2012.iResearch has investigated countermeasures to mitigate suicide in a general sense (i.e., not railway specific suicides, but suicides by all means). The FRA Office of Research and Development made an effort to document suicide countermeasure strategies which have been implemented or conceived for implementation in the railroad environment worldwide. The focus of this paper is to increase the reader's knowledge about the potential benefits and limitations that a specific countermeasure may impose for the railroads specific circumstances. This document is a summary of a more comprehensive paper that is expected to be published later in 2014