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Massive Disruption at Paddington - Suicide at Hayes & Harlington
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 |
Massive Disruption at Paddington - Suicide at Hayes & Harlington
*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 |
Massive Disruption at Paddington - Suicide at Hayes & Harlington
"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 |
Massive Disruption at Paddington - Suicide at Hayes & Harlington
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 |
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