Optimizing suicide and trespass prevention on railways: a problem-solving model from the RESTRAIL project

Abstract

Suicides and trespassing accidents result in more than 3800 fatalities in Europe, representing 88% of all fatalities occurring within the EU railway system. This paper presents a problem-solving model, which consists of a multistep approach structuring the analysis of a suicide or trespass-related problem on the railways. First, we present the method used to design, evaluate and improve the problem-solving model. Then we describe the model in detail: it comprises six steps with several subsequent actions, and each action is approached through a checklist of prompting questions and possible answers. At the end, we discuss the added value of this model for decision makers and its usability in the selection of optimal prevention measures.

Keywords:

• rail safety
• security
• risk management
• systematic process
• complex intervention

Acknowledgments

This work was carried out as part of the RESTRAIL project (REduction of Suicides and Trespasses on RAILway property; www.restrail.eu). A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the 6^th Transport Research Arena Conference, 18–21 April 2016, Warsaw, Poland.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. RESTRAIL (REduction of Suicides and Trespasses on RAILway property) was a three-year EU FP7 collaborative research project with 17 partners from 12 countries. The interdisciplinary consortium included rail infrastructure managers, research institutes, universities, and small and medium industries. The aim of the project was to help reduce railway suicides and trespassing fatalities as well as the disruptions caused by these events, by providing the rail industry and researchers worldwide with an analysis of cost-effective prevention and mitigation measures.

Additional information

Funding

The RESTRAIL project received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration [grant number 285153].