Anti train suicide partnership to continue despite rise in deaths
July 25, 2014
The Network Rail company and the suicide prevention group Samaritans are renewing a partnership formed in 2010 to reduce the number of suicide deaths on British railroad tracks. Through the partnership, approximately 6,000 staff members from railway companies all over the country have been trained to recognize signs that a person might be suicidal, and over 200 possibly suicidal individuals have been approached by rail staff. Physical barriers have been constructed to hinder attempts, and in some stations “smart cameras” are now installed that can provide alerts that a person might be vulnerable. While the number of suicides on the railways went down in 2011, it has risen in 2012 and 2013. Network Rail and Samaritans believe that this is a reflection of outside factors and the steady increase in rail traffic. Catherine Johnstone, Chief Executive of Samaritans, said “It seems clear from the very large number of interventions by rail staff that rail deaths would have been considerably higher had the partnership not been in place.”