PORTLAND, ORE. – People who kill themselves by freight train are similar to others who commit suicide in other ways, but perhaps suffer more severe mental illness, social isolation, and poverty, according to psychological autopsies conducted on 62 recent freight train suicides.
But they have a handful of unique features, too, according to the autopsies, which were conducted by the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) for the Railroad Research Foundation, an industry group that supplied data from eight major freight lines that was gathered from June 2007 through September 2010. The foundation is using the findings to develop prevention measures.
Not uncommonly, the subjects were spotted wandering the tracks or looking up train schedules before their suicides, and they often lived near the tracks – 47 (76%) within 1 mile, 53 (86%) within 2 miles.
Many had spent time around railroads during their lives, and some had known friends or relatives who had committed suicide by train, or at least had heard of others doing so. There were some copycat suicides among the 62.
"Some had a very significant focus on trains as kids," but it’s impossible to say if that focus was more common than in other children, said principle investigator and clinical psychologist Alan L. Berman, Ph.D., executive director of the AAS.
Perhaps about 350 people kill themselves by railroad in the United States each year, three-quarters of them using freight lines, the rest passenger lines. The exact number is unknown, because rail companies are not required to report suicides, said the project’s research director Dr. Ramya Sundararaman, a public health physician with the association.
Even after adjustment for population and amount of track, California, New York, Florida, and Illinois had the most rail suicides, according to an analysis of recent cases. Most of those who commit suicide were aged 35-55 years. Men accounted for about three-quarters, a proportion that is similar to suicide in general.
Most of the 62 autopsied deaths happened on the fringes of cities or suburbs, where fences did not block track access. Just two people drove their cars onto the tracks. The rest were on foot. Suicides occurred in both day and night.
Rail companies "want [the problem] to go away," Dr. Sundararaman said. Each hour of delay costs up to $10,000, and people sometimes opt not to come back to work on a train that has killed someone, she said.
Already, the findings are being used in a pilot project where suicide hotline numbers are posted on signs along three rail lines.
Phones have been installed nearby, too, because only two of the 62 people autopsied had cell phones with them when they died, probably because of financial hardship. Researchers want to be sure that those who are in despair have a way to call the number.
There are other ideas, too. The urban-suburban location of most of these incidents suggests that "you could probably [fence off] a certain miles-of-track, maybe 5 miles" one way and the other, said Dr. Berman, but doing so would be expensive.
Railroad personnel could be trained to intervene when they spot despondent people scoping out the tracks; trains also could slow down in densely populated areas to discourage attempts.
Putting cow catchers on the front of trains to scoop people off tracks and into airbags also might be a possibility but probably prohibitively expensive, Dr. Berman said.
At the very least, he said, a public education campaign is likely in order to raise awareness of suicide warning signs and where to get help, especially because he and his colleagues found that such signs were perhaps even more prevalent in people who decide to commit suicide by train than they are in other types of suicide.
Among the autopsied cases, 52 people (84%) had shown at least three acute risk factors, and more than half exhibited five or more, including withdrawal, anger, anxiety, and statements of hopelessness, according to interviews with kin, friends, and acquaintances.
Comorbid mental illness also proved common. "Many had two or more mental illnesses and/or substance abuse disorders," Dr. Sundararaman said; 38 (62%) had depression and 19 (30%) schizophrenia, the two most common diagnoses.
If they had been in treatment, most were not adherent. Past suicide attempts also were common.
A large number were transient, as well, and had legal and financial problems. Unemployment was high, and many were unmarried and otherwise socially isolated. Often, they were drunk when they killed themselves.
Acute psychiatric symptoms or upcoming court appearances were among the factors that ultimately appeared to push people over the edge, Dr. Berman said.