Person hit by a train 4th January

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Another one - so many recently, I know they tend to be more common around Christmas but never this frequent?

Cancellations to services between Oxford and Worcester Shrub Hill


Due to a person being hit by a train between Oxford and Worcester Shrub Hill all lines are blocked.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 11:45 04/01.
Customer Advice
Avanti West Coast and West Midlands Railway are conveying passengers via any reasonable route until further notice.

[IndustryInsider]

Another one - so many recently, I know they tend to be more common around Christmas but never this frequent?

A very high number of such incidents this year as you say.

[grahame]

Another one - so many recently, I know they tend to be more common around Christmas but never this frequent?

But ARE they? Or is it just that with little news around they occupy a higher proportion of our news feed?

Being very careful here not to link the incident today (for which we have no feedback of any details) to any specific reason ... but knowing that the majority of cases are suicides, I did a search to look for seasonality. To my surprise, I learned from Wikipedia with links to sources

Research on seasonal effects on suicide rates suggests that the prevalence of suicide is greatest during the late spring and early summer months, despite the common belief that suicide rates peak during the cold and dark months of the winter season

No mention in that article, though, of any potential blip around the Christmas / holiday season which is said to be a difficult time as daily life isn't normal daily life for a while, with added and different tensions.

Whilst vaguely on the subject, music playing in the background yesterday and Lisa asked me if I had ever listened to the words of Bruno Mars' "Grenade".  Can't say that I had.  Hmmm ...

I'd catch a grenade for you (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Throw my hand on a blade for you (yeah, yeah, yeah)
I'd jump in front of a train for you (yeah, yeah, yeah)
You know I'd do anything for you (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Oh, I would go through all this pain
Take a bullet straight through my brain
Yes, I would die for you, baby

[bobm]

Without being insensitive to the families of those involved but this spate of incidents must be having an effect on fleet availability.   A train is frequently out of service for a few days after some incidents thus potentially affecting the timetable.

[IndustryInsider]

Not to mention driver availability.  A driver is usually off driving duties for at least a couple of weeks afterwards, and sometimes many months and occasionally forever depending on how badly they have been affected by it.

[ellendune]

Years ago there was a driver at Derby who only worked an 08 shunter so did a lot of slow test trains at Mickleover. He had previously driven expresses until one day he was involved in such an incident. He never drove an express again.  Really nice man who would go extra stuff to help out in the gaps between tests. 

[CyclingSid]

For those who want to dig into the number see https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile-group/mental-health/profile/suicide/data#page/4/gid/1938132828/pat/6/par/E12000008/ati/102/are/E06000036/iid/41001/age/285/sex/4
Data not available at regional level, local authority level will be not better than annual because of small numbers and confidentiality and wide confidence intervals. The download section will allow you to download a csv file of all the data.