Recent Epidemic On the Rails

As you may have heard, if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, we are dealing with a community epidemic of suicides on the train tracks. People young and old and throwing themselves in front of trains and ending their lives. This last month included a botched attempt yesterday morning by a man, and also unfortunately included two kids from the same Palo Alto high school within a month, one of those was two days ago.

From an article published in the Oakland Tribune:

It's a subject Caltrain doesn't like to talk about publicly because it can lead to copycat suicides, but officials decided that the possibility of saving at least one person is worth the risk.

"We can no longer stay silent about train suicide," Ken Yeager, chair of the Caltrain board of directors, said during a press conference Tuesday at the Caltrain station at Fourth and King streets in San Francisco.

The article goes on…

Engineer Robert Orantes said he feels fear, anxiety and helplessness when someone decides to end their life by jumping in front of his train. Right before the impact, the victims make eye contact with him, "as if to try to make us feel their pain," he said.

Let’s stop here for a second and focus on the text. Mr. Orantes said “victims”. Not one victim, but several. Not one tragedy, but probably many in his years as an engineer. Not one pair of eyes making contact, but many. He is afraid the moment he makes eye contact with a person on the tracks. He's not trying to downplay his experience. He cannot stop several tons of a diesel passenger train in time and that is true helplessness. [I know this is sad to read. Be brave. Keep reading…]

There is obviously a lot of work that needs to be done to shed light on this very serious issue. A depressed individual has options, alternatives, and assistance available. To me, life is a very precious gift and my own personal beliefs stand on the fact that God breathed that life into us and as bad as sometimes things may seem, there is great reason to live and a great strength can be found in a human soul. We don’t need to go it alone. [Facts and help for suicide]

Toby loves trains, as you all know. He lives and breathes trains. If his passion continues through life, how will I explain this to him? Rail-fans are all too familiar with how their beloved trains are a tool for...well, can we call a spade a spade? Then lets call it "selfishness".

It is the ultimate selfish act. These “victims” are not considering the lives they affect – the engineer, the police officers and emergency crew called to the scene, the passengers, the passersby, the family, the friends, and the coworkers. This isn't a clean scene. It's a messy one.[Katie, I know you were a passenger recently and passed by the scene of a suicide in San Mateo this last month.]

If there is one subject that makes me angry, it’s suicide. Let me make this perfectly clear: It’s not funny to joke about, not funny to threaten, and not funny to mention in passing if you are just trying to get attention. This is serious! This is life we are talking about.

Perhaps, if we can just be aware of the issue, identify the signs, and support those who are trying to help… maybe… it will be one less set of eyes Mr. Orantes will see before impact. I'm praying that's the case.

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23