Person hit by train between Trowbridge and Westbury

[whole diary]

[grahame]

16th December at around 06:30 ish

05:44 Bristol to Portsmouth has hit a person between Trowbridge and Westbury.  Alll lines blocked. Local bus ticket acceptance and road transport being arranged.

[grahame]

16th December at around 06:30 ish

05:44 Bristol to Portsmouth has hit a person between Trowbridge and Westbury.  Alll lines blocked. Local bus ticket acceptance and road transport being arranged.

07:04 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa due 09:05 was started from Trowbridge and will be terminated at Swindon.
It will no longer call at Westbury, Kemble, Stroud, Stonehouse, Gloucester and Cheltenham Spa.
This is due to a person being hit by a train.

[grahame]

Sharing with permission - Trowbridge a short while ago ... not actually as jammed as I might have expected, but then I think this was fairly soon after the TransWilts train left for Swindon at around 07:25 ...  hope a lot of Bath and Bristol folks were able to take advantage of it!

[grahame]

Just been down to Melksham Station.  6 Off and 3 on to the two-car lunchtime train to Swindon; not bad, as this is the extra train that runs just 30 minutes after the 153's lunchtime trip around.   Noted that the station car park is virtually empty I suppose that's a confirmation that the free parking there really is being used for train travel which wasn't possible for many people this morning with the peak cancellations, but it does kind of suggest that there wasn't any suitable replacement for people and that the return trains tonight will also be very quiet.

[grahame]

From This is Wiltshire posted at lunch time yesterday (16th December 2016)

THE person who was hit by a train near Westbury station this morning was pronounced dead at the scene.

Just before 6.40am the British Transport Police were called to the line following reports a person had been hit.

Officers from BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) attended alongside paramedics from the South Western Ambulance Service.

BTP are now working to identify the person and inform their family.

This incident is not being treated as suspicious and a file will be prepared for the coroner.

[froome]

Another fatality today, I understand, on another GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) line. It badly delayed services into Bath from London (the train due to arrive was over an hour late when I got to Bath Spa this morning).

I have the feeling these incidents happen more in the winter months. Perhaps this is due to SAD?

[grahame]

Another fatality today, I understand, on another GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) line. It badly delayed services into Bath from London (the train due to arrive was over an hour late when I got to Bath Spa this morning).

I have the feeling these incidents happen more in the winter months. Perhaps this is due to SAD?

The discussion here in our frequent posters area includes some very interesting links, stats and metrics. One of the very difficult issues we have is how to reach people who can help with full briefing, and how to reach people who need that help with the help, but not with data that would be counterproductive to our desire to lessen the numbers.

[ChrisB]

Another fatality today, I understand, on another GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) line. It badly delayed services into Bath from London (the train due to arrive was over an hour late when I got to Bath Spa this morning).

I have the feeling these incidents happen more in the winter months. Perhaps this is due to SAD?

More likely at this time due to Christmas/family & cost.

[IndustryInsider]

Another fatality today, I understand, on another GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) line. It badly delayed services into Bath from London (the train due to arrive was over an hour late when I got to Bath Spa this morning).

I have the feeling these incidents happen more in the winter months. Perhaps this is due to SAD?

More likely at this time due to Christmas/family & cost.

A lot of factors play their part in a complex situation.  No doubt SAD and Christmas worries are a large part of the picture for this time of year when the number of railway fatalities/suicides seems to increase, though a quick search of the net has proved fruitless in terms of getting some data as to how the numbers of incidents rise/fall over the months of the year.  Has anyone got a link to such data?

[ChrisB]

Are they officially collated? I don't think they are...

[grahame]

A lot of factors play their part in a complex situation.  No doubt SAD and Christmas worries are a large part of the picture for this time of year when the number of railway fatalities/suicides seems to increase, though a quick search of the net has proved fruitless in terms of getting some data as to how the numbers of incidents rise/fall over the months of the year.  Has anyone got a link to such data?

The best I have is http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/19185/rail-safety-statistics-2014-15.pdf but all the tables it links to are annual rather than monthly.   There is a data statistics contact there who might be able to help if we were looking for the data as part of work which might help understanding for practical action reasons, and with their deep statistical base, Transport Focus might also be able to help.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Network Rail have a team of specially trained (no pun intended) people who look out for potential suicide situations on the railways: I'll see if they can offer any such seasonal statistics. 

[Bmblbzzz]

Another fatality today, I understand, on another GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) line. It badly delayed services into Bath from London (the train due to arrive was over an hour late when I got to Bath Spa this morning).

I have the feeling these incidents happen more in the winter months. Perhaps this is due to SAD?

More likely at this time due to Christmas/family & cost.

That was my thought too. But might winter also be a peak time for accidental deaths on railways, due to darker conditions and longer hours of darkness making it harder for drivers to see people on the track and for people to judge the speed/distance of trains?

[CyclingSid]

It might be worth searching for Suicide Audits. NHS Trusts, especially Mental Health ones, are expected to produce them as are Local Authority Public Health teams. Not sure if they are made public in most cases. Might also be worth looking at the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness, based at Manchester University. St Georges Hospital in London produces national report relating to substance abuse. These are not the pleasantest meetings to have to sit through, concerns tend to focus on "hotspots" (terrible term) which are quite often stations.. Network Rail, with Samaritans, say they are doing work in this area.

[Oberon]

My local bridge over the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) at Bathampton now has notices, one either end, with telephone numbers for distressed people to call if they are contemplating suicide. The peak time for ending it all, I believe, is in late January when the credit card bill for Christmas excesses lands on the doormat. Sad I know but you can imagine this being the thing that can push people finally over the edge.