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

BackgroundRESTRAIL 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.MethodThe 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.ResultsThe 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.DiscussionThese 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.

[1]  Brendan Ryan.  Reducing the risk of suicide or trespass on railways: developing better interventions through understanding behaviours of people , 2013 .

[2]  Anne Silla,et al.  Effect of railway safety education on the safety knowledge and behaviour intention of schoolchildren. , 2016, Evaluation and program planning.

[3]  Anne Silla,et al.  Evaluation of measures, recommendations and guidelines for further implementation: RESTRAIL Deliverable D5.2 , 2014 .

[4]  Vania Ceccato,et al.  Temporal and spatial patterns of suicides in Stockholm's subway stations. , 2015, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[5]  Jean-Luc Bruyelle,et al.  Method for the evaluation of measures targeted to prevent railway suicides and trespassing accidents: Merged Deliverable D2.1 & D3.1 , 2012 .

[6]  Carol H. Weiss,et al.  Theory‐based evaluation: Past, present, and future , 1997 .

[7]  Monica M Matthieu,et al.  Does a brief suicide prevention gatekeeper training program enhance observed skills? , 2010, Crisis.

[8]  Anne Silla,et al.  Seeking a new route for trespass prevention , 2015 .

[9]  Juha Luoma,et al.  Effect of three countermeasures against the illegal crossing of railway tracks. , 2011, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[10]  Mark Stevenson,et al.  An investigation of neighborhood-level social, economic and physical factors for railway suicide in Victoria, Australia. , 2015, Journal of affective disorders.

[11]  F Conso,et al.  Professional and medical outcomes for French train drivers after “person under train” accidents: three year follow up study , 2004, Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

[12]  Kerstin Junge.  Guidance for transport impact evaluations , 2010 .

[13]  Grigore M. Havârneanu,et al.  RESTRAIL Toolbox – An Innovative Solution for Safe, Secure and Resilient Railway Operation☆ , 2016 .

[14]  B Lobb,et al.  An evaluation of a suburban railway pedestrian crossing safety programme. , 2001, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[15]  Brian L Mishara,et al.  Railway and Metro Suicides. , 2007, Crisis.

[16]  Brian L Mishara,et al.  Systematic review of research on railway and urban transit system suicides. , 2016, Journal of affective disorders.

[17]  D. Holdstock.  Past, present--and future? , 2005, Medicine, conflict, and survival.

[18]  Anne Silla,et al.  A Model of Suicide and Trespassing Processes to Support the Analysis and Decision Related to Preventing Railway Suicides and Trespassing Accidents at Railways , 2014 .

[19]  Niki Harré,et al.  An evaluation of four types of railway pedestrian crossing safety intervention. , 2003, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[20]  B Ryan,et al.  Developing methodology in restrail for the preliminary evaluation of preventative measures for railway suicide and trespass , 2013 .

[21]  Frédéric Limosin,et al.  A prospective study of the psychological effects of "person under train" incidents on drivers. , 2006, Journal of psychiatric research.

[22]  Ian Savage.  Analysis of fatal train-pedestrian collisions in metropolitan Chicago 2004-2012. , 2016, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[23]  R. Farmer,et al.  A follow-up study of attempted railway suicides. , 1994, Social science & medicine.

[24]  Anne Silla,et al.  Current knowledge of railway suicides and trespassing accidents: Working paper , 2012 .

[25]  Grigore M. Havârneanu,et al.  RESTRAIL: Collaborative Project on REduction of Suicides and Trespasses on RAILway Property , 2014 .

[26]  Sjsu ScholarWorks,et al.  An Approach for Actions to Prevent Suicides on Commuter and Metro Rail Systems in the United States, MTI Report 12-33 , 2014 .

[27]  William Baron,et al.  Highway Rail-Grade Crossing Safety Research: Railroad Infrastructure Trespassing Detection Systems Research in Pittsford, New York , 2006 .

[28]  Jean-Marie Burkhardt,et al.  A systematic review of the literature on safety measures to prevent railway suicides and trespassing accidents. , 2015, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[29]  Helena Rådbo,et al.  Suicides and other fatalities from train-person collisions on Swedish railroads: a descriptive epidemiologic analysis as a basis for systems-oriented prevention. , 2005, Journal of safety research.