Tragic event at Leigh near Wigan

[Cheese]

17 hours ago, Graham Davis said:

Incorrect. 
Nearly every Enabling Act of Parliament, required for nearly every railway line in the country, required the route to be fenced. It has nothing to do with electrified lines.

Agreed. My comment was aimed at the fence maintenance / security fencing bit.

[magnetman]

2 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

It’s a common myth that preventing a suicide is merely delaying it. That is not the case.

 

It was the case with my mother. 

 

 

and her brother. And my cousin. They had all been stopped previously but later completed. The other two of her brothers appeared to manage on the first attempt. 

Some people actually mean it and are not attention seekers but I suppose with the public nature of railway lines there may be a higher probability of attention seekers. 

 

Also there is the very nasty danger of having a pram taken by a fast train. 

 

Its just odd that taking Maidenhead as an example there have been express trains passing through for decades and nobody thought a fence separating platforms was needed until a few months ago. 

[Lady M]

It's also very upsetting for the train drivers.

[magnetman]

Yes. But they must be trained about this. It is not something which would come out of the blue. You are at the front of a basically unstoppable wheeled vehicle weighing hundreds of tonnes. 

 

There is nothing the train driver can do about it. Surely it is a hazard of the job which is known about. 

 

I'm not saying it is nice but you are talking about a trained professional not a random dog walker. 

 

I found a suicide in the Thames once. Didn't cause me any discomfort really its just a corpse but the gore thing would be nasty. 

 

My mother made sure the person who found her (at home) would be her mental health nurse. A trained professional who can deal with these things and will have the skillset to handle it. Working with majorly depressed people is going to have this outcome sometimes. 

 

One of her brothers allowed his own daughter to find him hanging from a tree. Very disrespectful I feel - that is something to be avoided. 

 

Anyway yes it is sad for the train driver but also something they probably have to accept as a hazard of the job as more or less impossible to prevent. 

 

 

 

Edited February 3 by magnetman

[MtB]

4 hours ago, magnetman said:

Yes. But they must be trained about this.

 

 

Excellent pun! 

 

Was it deliberate?

 

 

[system 4-50]

I thought in the past that more publicity emphasizing that painful injury was a more likely outcome would have put off some people, but nowadays you can probably get advice from the internet on how to do it effectively.  One of my granddads is rumoured to have end it all in his mid 40s, but he used alcohol not a train.

[Ian Mac]

22 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Well yes.  A broken ankle and damp knees is the most likely outcome of jumping off a canal bridge on most parts of the network!

 

On 02/02/2024 at 16:27, Tigerr said:

Canal jumping suicides are something of a rarity, in comparison. 

 

The only death in a canal I have been involved with, the guy had climbed into the canal and stood there for a long time and had died of Hyperthermia, so sad his wife had recently died and he was heart broken we were told afterwards.

[Ewan123]

22 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Well yes.  A broken ankle and damp knees is the most likely outcome of jumping off a canal bridge on most parts of the network!

More likely to be jumping off from the canal I think. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct has a reputation.

[Tigerr]

14 minutes ago, Ewan123 said:

More likely to be jumping off from the canal I think. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct has a reputation.

It's a jumpers destination. Shocking number of wreaths there.

But the jumpers do have to climb over the fence to jump, and short of putting in the sort of netting etc that I have heard (not sure it's true) of at eg the Bristol gorge suspension bridge, not sure if that can be stopped. 

I am not aware though of any deaths from the 'dangerous' side of it. Despite it being perhaps the most spectacular example of high risk design. The entire thing would be ruined by a fence on that side. 

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, Ewan123 said:

More likely to be jumping off from the canal I think. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct has a reputation.

 

And some of them are not intentional.

 

We used to live 'just up the road' from the Aqueduct and one evening a gentleman had gone across to the 'other side' to the pub, having had a few tipples he set off on his way home.

The inquest found that the likely reason he was found, soaking wet, at the bottom of the valley was that he had fallen into the canal, climbed out (on the 'wrong side') and rolled over the edge.

[PeterScott]

11 hours ago, Tigerr said:

...short of putting in the sort of netting etc that I have heard (not sure it's true) of at eg the Bristol gorge suspension bridge, not sure if that can be stopped. ...

Bristol Uni induction talk, along the lines of: if that essay-deadline is too-far past, and you find yourself on Clifton Suspension Bridge at midnight, remember that the mud below is very soft, and you might find yourself in severe pain from broken limbs, up to your armpits in gooey mud, unreachable from the bank even if anyone knew you were there, and waiting five hours for the incoming tide: reading the signs on the bridge and ringing the Student Samaritans line is a better option. ...

[Graham Davis]

23 hours ago, Lady M said:

It's also very upsetting for the train drivers.

 

And the signallers and guards, and the rail staff who have to clear up the mess afterwards, both on the tracks and on the units.

 

And no, none of us are trained how to deal with it, other than for a signaller, "stop the job" (close the line and stop all trains). I understand from drivers I know that they don't get anything either. I don't think it would be possible. Thankfully counselling is now made available to all staff; it didn't used to be.

Edited February 4 by Graham Davis

[peterboat]

On 02/02/2024 at 22:23, TheBiscuits said:

 

Well yes.  A broken ankle and damp knees is the most likely outcome of jumping off a canal bridge on most parts of the network!

Not ours its quite deep an old lady was found in the basin the other week face down unfortunately