Citation

Radbo H, Svedung I, Andersson R. J. Saf. Res. 2005; 36(5): 423-428.

Affiliation

Department of Social Sciences, Division of Public Health Sciences, Karlstad University, SE-651 88 Karlstad, Sweden.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, U.S. National Safety Council, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jsr.2005.08.003

PMID

16303140

Abstract

PROBLEM: Suicide is a dominating, although hidden, safety problem on Swedish railroads. The aim of this paper is to describe the epidemiology of fatal train-person collisions as a basis for systems-oriented prevention. METHOD: Data on collision circumstances were collected from narrative reports at the Swedish National Rail Administration. RESULTS: The events were evenly distributed by months and weekdays, however, most suicides occur during the day while unintentional events usually occur at night. Most train-person collisions happened in densely populated areas, and 75% of the suicide victims were waiting on the track before the collision. Significance test between types of injury event (suicide, accident, or unknown intent) showed small or no differences. CONCLUSION: Traditional approaches to accident prevention by systems modification seem largely applicable to combat railroad suicide as well. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Our findings show promising preventive potentials.