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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: june 2018 :: RMTnews
18
SUICIDE ON OUR
RAIL NETWORK IS
NOT INEVITABLE
Many members will remember
when a suicide on the railway
was considered the norm, part
of the daily routine and
accepted by the industry as
such.
Sadly suicides still take place
on the network, on average 252
per annum but there’s no longer
that inevitability about them.
The industry has woken up to
the fact that it has and can play
a part in not only stopping
deaths on the railway but in
society as whole.
That change in thinking
started back in 2010 when
industry partners came together
and backed a move to have
Network Rail oversee a
programme of work to prevent
suicides on the railway for the
good of all. Today a dedicated
team of five still continue that
work in a close partnership with
Samaritans and a British
Transport Police Mental Health
and Suicide Prevention Unit,
established in 2013.
RMT’s AGM in 2017 debated
and carried a resolution calling
on the union to fully engage
with the rail industry to help
reduce the numbers of people
taking their lives on the
network. Not only are incidents
like this a personal tragedy for
the individual involved but the
event can also have a
debilitating effect on railway
workers directly involved and
called upon to deal with them in
their aftermath.
A Samaritans rail team has
been in place since the start of
the programme and for the first
couple of years guided the
industry in its understanding