A systematic review of the literature on safety measures to prevent railway suicides and trespassing accidents

Havârneanu, Grigore; Burkhardt, Jean‐Marie; Paran, Françoise

doi:10.1016/j.aap.2015.04.012

Cited by 46 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…The trend continued and today the number of crossing fatalities is only about half of the number of trespasser fatalities. Consequently the railroad industry, both in the United States and elsewhere in the world, has increasingly turned its attention to understanding and mitigating unintentional pedestrian deaths and suicides (Botha, Neighbour and Kauer, 2014;Fitzpatrick et al, 2015;Gabree, Chase, Doucette and Coplen, 2014;Harrison and DaSilva, 2013;Havârneanu, Burkhardt and Paran, 2015;RESTRAIL Consortium, 2014; and a working group known as the Global Railway Alliance for Suicide Prevention (GRASP)).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of fatal train-pedestrian collisions in metropolitan Chicago 2004–2012

Savage

2016

Accident Analysis & Prevention

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The paper analyzes spatial and temporal data on fatal train-pedestrian collisions in the Chicago metropolitan area between 2004 and 2012. In comparing different municipalities within the region, the density of grade crossings and stations is found to increase the frequency of unintentional deaths. However, unintentional deaths do not increase with train volume suggesting that pedestrians may exercise more care around busier lines. The distribution of apparent intentional deaths is less strongly related to the density of crossings and stations suggesting that those intending self-harm will seek out a point of access. Apparent intentional deaths are more prevalent on lines with frequent passenger trains, and in municipalities with higher incomes and lower population densities. While most of the apparent intentional deaths (about 70%) are not associated with any copycat activities, the dataset contains possible clusters of intentional deaths that are proximate in both time and space. There was also a highlypublicized suicide that led to a 95% increase in apparent intentional deaths throughout the region in the 18 weeks following the incident.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of fatal train-pedestrian collisions in metropolitan Chicago 2004–2012

Savage

2016

Accident Analysis & Prevention

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“…In parallel with this RESTRAIL work, the US Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) published a report on counter measures to mitigate railway suicide [15] and Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) a report on actions to prevent suicide on commuter and rail systems [16]. These reports are complementary with the RESTRAIL review [14] discussing the same categories of interventions. They show that parallel work conducted on another continent lead to convergent results.…”

Section: Information On Countermeasuresmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…These measures can be applied to both events or be specifically targeted to prevent either railway suicides or trespassing accidents [14]. According to a survey among RESTRAIL partners more than 40 different (partly overlapping) measures for the prevention of railway suicides and trespassing accidents have been implemented in EU Member States.…”

Section: Information On Countermeasuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The RESTRAIL literature review highlighted the main differences and similarities between railway suicides and trespassing events and discussed the preventive measures [14]. These measures can be applied to both events or be specifically targeted to prevent either railway suicides or trespassing accidents [14].…”

Section: Information On Countermeasuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The method has demonstrated the capacity to support the analysis and selection of the most cost-effective measures: 8 families for suicide and trespass, 10 families for the prevention of suicide and 4 families of measures against trespass (see Table 2). This rigorous assessment method explains why the final set of RESTRAIL measures is shorter than the exhaustive set of known measures identified from reviews of the scientific and grey literature [14][15][16]. However, the assessment method allowed the inclusion of some new promising approaches which are barely described in the literature and which have been identified from complementary workshops and focus groups with railway experts.…”

Section: Assessment Of Suitable Measures (Technical and Soft)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lessons learned from the collaborative European project RESTRAIL: REduction of suicides and trespasses on RAILway property

Havârneanu

Bonneau

Colliard

2016

Eur. Transp. Res. Rev.

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Background RESTRAIL was a three year EU FP7 research project which aimed to help reduce the occurrence of suicides and trespasses on railway property and the costly service disruption caused by these events. The project was coordinated by the International Union of Railways (UIC) and provided the rail industry and researchers worldwide with an analysis of the most cost-effective prevention and mitigation measures. The goal of this paper is to inform the railway and scientific community about the successful completion of the project and to present an overview of the main results and key innovations. Method The project covered five relevant issues which significantly contributed to improve the prevention of railway suicide and trespass, and to mitigate their consequences: (1) collection and analysis of data related to railway suicides and trespassing accidents and information about preventative strategies; (2) assessment of preventive measures to reduce railway suicide and trespass; (3) assessment of measures to mitigate the consequences; (4) pilot tests to evaluate some promising measures on the field; and (5) practical recommendations and guidelines. Results The main project outcomes included: an integrated data analysis on railway suicide and trespass, a list of 25 recommended measures, 11 field tests which provided new pieces of evidence for the effectiveness of different measures, and a free online toolbox for decision-makers. Discussion These achievements are discussed in relation to the ongoing need of practical and exploitable results from EU-funded research projects, since the scientific and applied outcomes of RESTRAIL are an example of good practice for the benefit of the entire railway community and society.

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PROTOCOL: Evidence and gap map: studies of the effectiveness of transport sector interventions in low‐ and middle‐income countries

Malhotra

White

Cruz

et al. 2021

Campbell Systematic Reviews

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BACKGROUND 1 1.1 | The condition Context: In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz Michela Wrong describeswalking down the overgrown disused railway which years before had been part of a network linking DRC's copper mines to ports in Angola and South Africa. Despite new investments in the last decade-the Benguela Railway link from DRC to Angola reopened in 2018 after being closed for 34 years 2 -Africa's rail system is small compared to that in other parts of the world, and a substantial part of what there is not used (Bullock, 2009). The poor state of railway transport in Africa-and the unrealised potential of inland waterways-puts excess pressure on the fragile road transport system, so that transport costs-which are increased by uncompetitive practices-are a break on African development.While much of Africa is an extreme case, inadequate transport infrastructure is an issue across much of the developing world.There are great disparities in the quantity and quality of infrastructure. European countries such as Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK have close to 200 km of road per 100 km 2 , and the Netherlands over 300 km per 100 km 2 . By contrast, Kenya and Indonesia have <30, Laos and Morocco <20, Tanzania and Bolivia <10, and Mauritania only 1 km per 100 km 2 . 3 As these figures show, there is a significant backlog of transport infrastructure investment in both rural and urban areas, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (Foster & Bricenõ-Garmendia, 2010). The situation is often exacerbated by weak governance and an inadequate regulatory framework with poor enforcement which lead to high costs and defective construction.The wellbeing of many poor people is constrained by lack of transport, which is called "transport poverty." Lucas et al. (2016) suggest that up to 90% of the world's population are transport poor when defined as meeting at least one of the following criteria: (1) lack of available suitable transport, (2) lack of transport to necessary destinations, (3) cost of necessary transport puts household below income poverty line, (4) excessive travel time, or (5) travel conditions unsafe or unhealthy.

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A systematic review of the literature on safety measures to prevent railway suicides and trespassing accidents

Cited by 46 publications

References 93 publications

Analysis of fatal train-pedestrian collisions in metropolitan Chicago 2004–2012

Analysis of fatal train-pedestrian collisions in metropolitan Chicago 2004–2012

Lessons learned from the collaborative European project RESTRAIL: REduction of suicides and trespasses on RAILway property

PROTOCOL: Evidence and gap map: studies of the effectiveness of transport sector interventions in low‐ and middle‐income countries

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