Great Western Coffee Shop

Following a Freedom of Information request to the British Transport Police, figures have been released for the number of incidents across the rail network where someone has been hit by a train. The period covered by the statistics is 1st January 2012 - 2nd April 2012. A total of 147 incidents are recorded.

In isolation these figures are perhaps a little meaningless without comparison to other dated periods, but they do show just how frequently the rail network is affected by incidents of 'persons hit by/under train'.

There is no distinction in the statistics between injury and fatality, nor is there distinction between 'hit by' and 'under'. The information does however only pertain to members of the public and doesn't include rail staff.

http://t.co/WtAqhmen

The link is a MS Word .doc, which lists each of the 147 incidents and their date, time and location for the period 01/01/2012 to 02/04/2012.

Looking at the list, it's rare for more than a few days to pass by without someone somewhere being hit by a train.

Spare a thought for the train drivers.  :(

It does highlight an all to common occurrence and while we have no way of telling how many resulted in fatalities and how many in injury it is fair assumption that all of them will have left an emotional effect on those involved and will not easily be forgotten.

However I do question this whole Freedom of Information "culture".  While acknowledging that some useful information is gleaned how much time and effort is spent producing reports?   How good is the information received?  Taking this report as a case in point.  Where is Station Road (20/03/12 12:06)?  Where is Church Street (13/03/12 20:09)?  It is meaningless - but fuflills the requirement of the Act.

The data does not distinguish between suicide (ie where the deliberate act of going onto the railway was for the individual to take their own life) and trespass (ie where going onto the railways by an individual was for purposes other than to take their own life)

While both of these cause the same level of disruption trespass is arguably easier to feature than suicide

... and it can't until inquests are concluded. I think that takes a lot longer that three weeks, the age of some of this data. You'll see other options too if you look back through some of the very unfortunate threads on this topic.