In message , David
Cantrell writes

On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 02:57:38AM +0100, D A Stocks wrote:

I understand Southern have had some success with the measures they have
taken at the more notorious spots in their territory.

What have they done, and what are those spots?

I don't know if it is related to actions by Southern, but there was a
controlled experiment by the Forestry Commission in the New Forest, that
involved placing posters advertising the help that can be given by the
Samaritans at car parks that had a record of suicides by car-exhaust
poisoning.

Although seemingly very simple, suicides in the area were reduced from
10 a year to 3.3, while no significant changes were found in comparable
forest districts.

There's also a joint ATOC-Samaritans leaflet on the problem ...
http://www.samaritans.org/about_sama...s/reducing_sui
cide_railways.aspx

.... that, in addition to placing posters at notorious spots, suggests
that the staff training offered by the Samaritans can help rail staff in
feeling more confident to intervene when a situation arises.
--
Paul Terry

In article
,
() wrote:

*From:*
*Date:* Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:35:30 -0700 (PDT)

All trains were been cancelled in and out of Paddington for the best
part of this afternoon. Trains only started going through H&H about
an
hour ago (18,00). We arrived at H&H just now and they were still
scrubbing the surface and surrounds of platform 3. All was roped off
there. The smell was over-powering. No further details. We're
getting
about one suicide every three weeks on this line - usually at
Southall
and now H&H. Appalling. And nothing seems to be getting done about
this situation.

And of course thousands of passengers for Heathrow missed their
flights, with consequent missed flight connections, hotel
reservations
and appointments. HCon and HEX (aka BAA) failed to provide
alternative
transportation.

And there did not seem to be any contingency plans at Paddington
despite this being a regular occurrence.

CJB.

There's a news report from 2007 he
http://tinyurl.com/ycy8lx9
apparently, in 2006, one third of all one-unders on NR were in this area.

Roger

*From:* Tubeprune
*Date:* Wed, 20 Jul 2011 01:50:29 -0700 (PDT)


One area that needs to be addressed is the police and fire brigade
approach to such incidents. It's usually the them that require a
complete shutdown. NR and the railway companies need to get
together
with the emergency services to examine more efficient ways of
recovering the train service. It's difficult but it can be done.

Apart from any forensic work, I think the amount of time taken depends a
lot on whether the person is still alive or not. Every effort will be made
to get out a person that's alive without any additional damage, even if
this means cutting off a limb when they're trapped. It may be possible to
remove an inaccessible dead person quicker if the train is moved past the
body, as long as the person has obviously been certified dead and suitable
evidence taken for the coroner and any subsequent damage has no impact for
the autopsy - i.e. a leg being chopped off if the train is moved probably
won't make much difference to the overall result as far as the coroner is
concerned. I know this sort of thing has been done in the past.

Each one under is different. On the Underground, in the deep level
stations with the suicide pits, acess to the person or body is generally
easier. However, it can still take time to actually get the person or body
out. Some of the time spent may be waiting for the "heavy gang" to arrive
if, for example, the train needs jacking up. In many cases, the subsequent
police action is very short by comparison, unless foul play is suspected,
in which case the station (and track) may be shut for hours.

Another delay can be the state of the body. A body that is visibly in one
piece is much easier to deal with than one that has been chopped up into
various pieces and may be scattered over a wide area (especially when hit
by a fast train) or stuck to the underside of the train. In these
circumstances, the police will normally want to do a thorough track search
before giving the track back for use. For some reason, perhaps because of
it's shape, the head is sometimes some distance away from the rest of the
body and may take a while to find, depending on how far it's rolled and
the state of the trackside.

Roger

"David Cantrell" wrote in message
k...
On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 02:57:38AM +0100, D A Stocks wrote:

I understand Southern have had some success with the measures they have
taken at the more notorious spots in their territory.

What have they done, and what are those spots?

The most obvious is that platforms on the fast lines that are not in normal
use are fenced off at most stations. The platforms are still useable (via
gates that are usually locked) and the fencing used is fairly unobtrusive -
it's there to make it just a bit harder for someone to make a spontaneous
leap, rather than to stop them altogether. The following reports an example:

http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/Platform-fences-installed-Croydon-stations-stop-suicide-bids/story-11370684-detail/story.html

--
DAS

Here is an ancient suicide, probably from around 1876. I think the
real location may have been Willesden Jct:

"...Tenway Junction is so big a place, and so scattered, that it is
impossible that all the pundits should by any combined activity
maintain to the letter the order of which our special pundit had
spoken. Lopez, departing from the platform which he had hitherto
occupied, was soon to be seen on another, walking up and down, and
again waiting. But the old pundit had his eye on him, and had followed
him round. At that moment there came a shriek louder than all the
other shrieks, and the morning express down from Euston to Inverness
was seen coming round the curve at a thousand miles an hour. Lopez
turned round and looked at it, and again walked towards the edge of
the platform but now it was not exactly the edge that he neared, but a
descent to a pathway, --an inclined plane leading down to the level of
the rails, and made there for certain purposes of traffic. As he did
so the pundit called to him, and then made a rush at him,--for our
friend's back was turned to the coming train. But Lopez heeded not the
call, and the rush was too late. With quick, but still with gentle and
apparently unhurried steps, he walked down before the flying engine--
and in a moment had been knocked into bloody atoms."

That is from The Pallisers by Anthony Trollope