FY15 Countermeasures to Reduce Suicides on Railroad Rights of Way

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The CDC reports that in 2013, more than 41,000 Americans died by suicide. Of the top 10 causes of death, suicide was the only cause of death to increase between 2011 and 2012. Current FRA data show that in 2012 there were 242 suicide fatalities and 46 additional injuries from suicide attempts. Trespassing is already understood to be one of the two most serious safety problems (the second being grade crossing collisions) facing the railroad industry and its regulators not only in the U.S. but also in other countries. Moreover, it is widely believed that the reported prevalence and incidence of suicide on the railroad rights-of-way railway is underreported. The scope of this grant includes include planning, organizing, and reporting from one or more meetings of the internationally recognized experts in suicide on railroad rights-of-way known as GRASP, or the Global Rail Alliance for Suicide Prevention. This grant will build on the results of a previous grant that supported two international GRASP meetings and continue additional meetings and collaboration activities. The objectives of this grant activities include: (a) synthesis of the international efforts pertaining to the mitigation of suicide and trespasser incidents on the railroad rights-of-way and associated evaluation activities across GRASP meeting attendees (what activities are currently being conducted, the scope of evaluation associated with these activities, what has been learned, and what needs to be explored in the future); (b) assessment of potential collaboration of research and evaluation projects across GRASP members; (c) synthesis of GRASP’s review of an implementation guide developed to serve as a resource for carrier critical incident stress plans to help mitigate traumatic exposure on railroad employees due to exposure to grade crossing and trespasser incidents, especially suicides; and (d) GRASP collaboration and feedback on one or more pilot evaluation projects that examine effectiveness and impact of selected railway suicide countermeasures, such as signage, media reporting, fencing, railroad employee training and education, or suicide incident data collection accuracy (e.g. Ovenstone Criteria).

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