After I posted about high-speed rail between Portland and Seattle, I came across a news report of the arrest of the man who parked his car on a commuter rail track in Glendale, California last week and caused a wreck that killed 11 persons. A background article quoted Tim White, spokesman for the American Association of Railroads, as saying, "With 140,000 miles of rail line and 150,000 grade crossings, I’m not sure there is any method that’s effective in preventing it [suicide by train]. The key is suicide prevention." The article then quoted Karen Marshall, founder of a suicide prevention organization in Michigan, as saying, "The time to have prevented the suicide attempt * * * was long before he got behind the wheel of the SUV and headed toward the railroad track."
Somewhere in the Laquedem Library I have a volume that compares the American and British investment in railroads. I recall it saying that (in inflation-adjusted dollars per mile) the British rail builders paid three or four times as much as the Americans to build their railroads. One of the things they got in exchange was an almost complete lack of grade crossings — the builders paid what it took to separate rails from roads. You can take a train from London to Edinburgh (a 6+ hour trip) and pass over only a handful of grade crossings. England has so few grade crossings that the auto association’s map shows where they are.
The time to prevent the suicide attempt was, as Ms. Marshall said, long before the man got into his car and drove to the track. The time to prevent the suicide attempt was when the track was built.
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This is an interesting point you make. I can see your point…but also, have to add that say we did spend the same amount of money as they did in London and had very few grade crossings here in the States. I tend to doubt that the number of suicide attempts nationally per year would be less. People that want to commit suicide will find a way, unfortunately.