Sunday Letters: Metra is trying to reduce suicides on tracks

In two weeks, there have been four incidents in which Metra trains have struck pedestrians, three of them fatal. The thoughts of everyone at Metra are with the families and friends of these men. For those of us who run the railroad, the deaths were terrible tragedies.

Although not all of these deaths have been formally ruled suicides, a number of them appear to have been intentional acts. This fits an unfortunate pattern. Despite the common belief that suicide rates peak during winter months, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics reports that suicide rates in the U.S. are highest in spring and fall.

Suicide on railroad tracks is a very real problem with which most railroads around the world struggle. For Metra, specifically and sadly, 11 out of 26 fatalities that occurred on Metra tracks last year were apparently intentional acts. These deaths not only impact the family members and friends of the victims, but they also traumatize the engineer and train crew and affect Metra riders who are delayed by the ensuing investigation, sometimes for hours.

Metra is doing its part to combat these tragic events. Last fall, we started a training program for nearly 1,000 front-line employees, including engineers, conductors and station agents, to help them identify individuals who were in distress or suicidal, take appropriate action to intervene, prevent them from attempting suicide and get them help. We’ve also begun to actively respond to messages on Twitter that threaten suicide and reference Metra.

You too can help. If you think a friend or family member is considering suicide or if you need or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

Don Orseno,

executive director/CEO, Metra

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Mike Calendar, Dunning

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