A model of suicide and trespassing processes to support the analysis and decision related to preventing railway suicides and trespassing accidents at railways

More than 3000 people die each year in Europe due to the collision with a train due to suicides or trespassing. This paper describes and justifies a model of suicide and trespassing processes on the tracks from a review of papers on rail suicide and/or trespasses carried out in the European project RESTRAIL (REduction of Suicides and Trespasses on RAILway property). Inspired by Rådbo et al. (2008; 2012a), the model identifies 9 steps and antecedents in the chain of events leading to railway suicides and trespassing accidents, and associates them with corresponding classes of preventative measures. It starts from the identified motives and ends with the train-pedestrian collision. We discuss on the added values of this model and on some important considerations related to the selection and design of preventive measures