USDOT Volpe Center highlights report on suicide-prevention training

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Volpe Cente7 is promoting a new report on the most effective suicide-prevention training programs in the rail industry.

Despite efforts to implement effective suicide-prevention strategies, deaths from suicide have steadily accounted for about one-third of all fatalities that occur on the U.S. rail system. A lack of research on the effectiveness of preventative strategies may be contributing to uncertainty among rail carriers when considering implementing countermeasures, Volpe Center officials said in a press release.

To address the lack of knowledge in this area, the Federal Railroad Administration sponsored research to review and analyze the most established suicide-intervention training programs from around the world.

The new report, titled Review of Suicide Intervention Training Programs, reviews ongoing programs in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. A Volpe Center team of human factors experts reached out to railroads to collect information on their programs and produced a high-level overview of intervention programs and strategies.

The report helps to fill the gap in research about suicide-intervention training programs for railroad staff and crew members. It provides lessons learned and best practices based on successful programs that have been implemented around the world and aims to serve as a starting point for rail carriers in the United States to implement their own programs, Volpe Center officials said.

"The USDOT Volpe Center hopes that sharing this vital information will benefit the railroad industry as a whole and lead to fewer deaths across the national rail system," they said.