The commuter rail agency, in partnership with Amtrak and Chicago-area safety advocates, sponsored a daylong symposium entitled “Breaking the Silence.” The session Wednesday at Chicago Union Station was intended to coordinate a strategy to prevent suicides along the tracks.
The agency gathered nearly 100 mental health experts and community members to help in its campaign to install suicide prevention signs along its 11 lines by the end of the year.
Metra Board Chairman Norman Carlson said the agency wanted to develop a collaborative regional strategy to address the problem.
The primary goal “is saving human lives,” Carlson said. “That is our principal objective.”
The event coincided with Rail Safety Week. September is also National Suicide Prevention Awareness month.
Metra announced the campaign in July after a spate of suicides in the Chicago area. So far this year, Metra said it has tallied 21 suicides or suspected suicides, more than in each of the previous five years.
The problem of suicide by train is particularly acute in the Chicago area, experts say, because the city is the nation’s railroad hub, served by six Class I railroads and Amtrak. Metra itself runs more than 700 trains a day.
The agency said it has so far trained more than 700 engineers, conductors and other employees to recognize individuals in despair and to intervene.
Although this program has been successful, Carlson said the agency needed to do more to “break the silence” surrounding the topic. Many in the industry believe media attention to the topic — even discussing prevention efforts — leads to suicide “copycatting.”
Much of the symposium focused on the message Metra intends to place on the signs installed at its 241 stations.
Metra wants to avoid even using the word “suicide,” said Hilary Konczal, chief safety and environmental officer.
Instead, he said, Metra wants to promote a broader message: that help for distress, depression, or mental illness is available and is easy as a phone call away.
Other rail agencies in the U.S. and abroad have posted such signs. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority partners with Samaritans Inc. of Boston with signs that say, “You Are Not Alone” with a helpline number.
The Rotary Club in suburban Naperville, Ill., has already posted similar signs at its Metra station.
“We want to ensure that the sign has a message of hope,” Konczal said. “Rather than hopelessness.”
The bay bridge used to keep public count, but they were reaching a milestone, say 100, and they did not want someone to try and do it to be known as #100.
In answer to Eric Schneider:
There is little empirical evidence one way or the other regarding whether people who see railroad signage contact help lines. Despite the statistics (75% of railroad-related deaths), pedestrian safety (trespassers, suicides, and peds at crossings) has not been the major focus of research of the FRA, the railroads, or academics (with some exceptions- and the FRA, very late to the party, has begun to see this as somewhat of a priority). In general, signs are cheap and quick, but there has been little-to-no tracking. Also, one VERY small sample in Berman (cited below) indicates few people (less than 10%) who completed suicides by rail had a working cell phone on them, so a dedicated phone would be required to have any chance of being effective.
Some good studies on rail-related suicide:
Quote from DOT/FRA/ORD 14/36 from fra.dot.gov:
“Though the potential effects of crisis center signage on railway suicide rates are unknown, the use of anti-suicide signage as a suicide mitigation strategy holds promise. If implemented, railroads may consider working directly with the crisis center to track calls and monitor the use of the line.”
Other sources:
Berman A, Sundararaman R, Price A, Au J
Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, vol. 44, issue 6 (2014) pp. 710-722 Published by Wiley-Blackwell
Anything by Brian Mishara and Cecile Bardon (Canada)
Railroads are not the only group keeping quiet about suicides, for fear of encouraging copycats. New York City area newspapers and radio & TV stations do not report jumpers off of the George Washington Bridge; in 2015, there were 20+, and several more intercepted.
There probably is some good research in this area but, with signs displaying a positive message there then exists an alternative. Kudus to METRA for initiating this action.
Anyone have data on whether these signs seem to increase calls to suicide prevention or similar supports?