Consequences of public suicide

[nick.lidgett]

I will give my input here as i am a train driver. First, lets discard the myth - there is no set time for a driver to be off. As someone else said, people deal with these things very differently. One person may cope very well (not their fault/nothing they could do etc..) whilst others have their lives ruined by the actions of one.

If i was to hit someone, the first thing i have to do is stop everything around me (it may be a glancing blow?) as there are very strict rules regarding other trains going past a dead body. Once all emergency procedures are followed, it then becomes a cleanup operation and i am removed from the situation asap.

As was rightly said - if i want counselling i get it until i am ready to come back to work, if i dont want it, thats fine and i return to work when interview/drugs & alcohol tests are concluded and everyone is happy for that to happen.

I have come close to hitting someone which did give me the shakes (school kids messing about), but my personal attitude is if its suicide i am mearly the tool. If someone falls/pushed etc.. then thats a different mindset and one i cannot really talk about as its not happened.

Whilst it takes a LOT of courage i think to commit suicide, i cant help but feel when someone wants to use someone else to do it (train/bus/car drivers- you get the idea), that is somewhat selfish. If you choose to do it by other methods (overdose), at least you are not potentially affecting someone elses life (excluding family obviously and emergency services).

All in all its a sad situation and whilst people are delayed by situations like this, i would hope the majority are understanding that sometimes these situations cannot be avoided.

Thought I would post my thoughts on this as I have experience with suicide. As someone pointed out, seeing someone die by suicide in any way is awful.

Earlier on this year I found my mother hanging in our garage, as I'm sure you can imagine, seeing that, then with your brother having to cut them down, call ambulance, gives police statements and many other things, is about the worst thing that can happen to someone. But what I do know is my mother was the kindest most selfless person I had ever met, I cannot think of a single time in my life where she didn't put myself or her family first. She suffered with severe depression for the whole life, and the last 18 months, it got worse. Now I know my mum would never have wanted one of her son's or husband to find her like that, so something snapped as far as I'm concerned, because if she was thinking rationally, it wouldn't have happened.

So while I agree that suicide is not fair to anyone left behind, and being someone in the past that probably would have said "it's selfish" to do it, I can now say having been touched by it, I doubt anyone that actually goes through with it is even able to comprehend the consequences of their actions by that point, and anyone around them/affected just arn't anywhere to be found in what is left of their mind.

Fair play for sharing guys, more so you nick, best wishes mate.

 

[gary996]

Why don't the bar stewards go and kill them self at home and stop making everyone else go through carp

 

[cdcopyman]

Why don't the bar stewards go and kill them self at home and stop making everyone else go through carp

a lot do, still its a cowards way out and they should stick to life like the rest of us.

*edited due to not reading all of the replies*

 

[Suarez7]

Why don't the bar stewards go and kill them self at home and stop making everyone else go through carp

a lot do, leave the car or motorbike inn garage, rope ...lots of ways. still its a cowards way out and they should stick to life like the rest of us.

Absolute stupid thing to post especially taken into context what people like Nick have shared with us.

 

[Anox]

Just a bit of info on the tube when people decide to commit suicide or fall onto the track. In a station, there is a pit under the rails that has been installed to prevent people being mangled under the train or avoid electrocution. I don't think this was the original purpose but when under contract with with LU we got briefed on this type of stuff. Unfortunately I have seen a person go under a tube train at a station. Thankfully the person rolled mostly into the pit as the driver stopped, but their arm was still on one rail and got ran over. It's not pretty I tell you that and a few other people and I began helping the station staff evacuate people from the platform. I was glad that the person had been knocked out otherwise they wouldve been screaming in agony. I wasn't shaken up by the incident but I felt such pity for the person who jumped to attempt to go just like that.

 

[Tefal]

You mean in the cab at the front of the train with loads of windows?

which are al lquite a bit above head hight, suppose it depends if the person falls to track level before impact though.

like a truck driver wouldnt tend to saee much of the actual impact with a person.

 

[Tefal]

Why don't the bar stewards go and kill them self at home and stop making everyone else go through carp

cause doing it at home is usually protracted and painful a train is quick, painless and pretty much guaranteed to be instant death, rather than life time crippled.

 

[Steampunk]

a lot do, leave the car or motorbike inn garage, rope ...lots of ways. still its a cowards way out and they should stick to life like the rest of us.

People who commit suicide, especially through depression don't see it like that. They often believe the world, and their loved ones would be better off without them. They end their own lives to end their own suffering, and their perceived suffering of those around them. They are in fact sacrificing themselves to fix the problem. It may not be true, but it's what they believe.

You wouldn't suggest it's cowardice if you'd ever had to deal with somone close suffering from depression (or some other mental illness), or help them through their recovery. You can't ask them to "pull themselves together" any more than you can ask someone with a broken leg to "walk it off".

And there are a lot of people that suffer from depression, and more that are only a few steps away. Sometimes it doesn't take much for people to wish they wouldn't wake up in the morning, and it easily could be someone important to you one day.

 

[cdcopyman]

Absolute stupid thing to post especially taken into context what people like Nick have shared with us.

sorry i didnt read/see his post, i still say its a cowards way out though, we all get down at some point, its human nature but help is out there and life is worth living, mental issues or not ...with the right help anything is possible.

 

[Dis86]

Both my step-father and uncle are experienced police officers (50 years exp between them). Sadly they've had to deal with their share of suicides. The first one my uncle dealt with hit him quite hard, it was a train suicide and he helped pick up the pieces along with another officer. When they returned to the station later that day the other officer was then told that his brother had killed himself...well...you can guess the rest. The majority they have both dealt with have been hangings, one for my step-father that had been there a substantial amount of time and he had to stay with the body. Very very unpleasant as you can imagine. His personal hatred are those that jump off high buildings/bridges as they too tend to be very messy but also tend to have a large 'audience'. On the brighter side he recently saved someone's life when they were attempting to hang themselves. He got in to their flat in time, took their weight and held them until his partner could cut them down.
Both agree that it's unfair on those that witness it as it's something they have no choice over and will stay with them for the rest of their life. They also both agree that those that are left behind are the true victims.

 

[deuse]

I led to believe that a train driver that witnesses a suicide is immediately on leave for 6 months at full pay and private psychiatric support is also paid for.

It's a pity the government never took the same route in getting support for people that want to commit suicide.


Thanks Cameron

 

[dirtychinchilla]

Both my step-father and uncle are experienced police officers (50 years exp between them). Sadly they've had to deal with their share of suicides. The first one my uncle dealt with hit him quite hard, it was a train suicide and he helped pick up the pieces along with another officer. When they returned to the station later that day the other officer was then told that his brother had killed himself...well...you can guess the rest. The majority they have both dealt with have been hangings, one for my step-father that had been there a substantial amount of time and he had to stay with the body. Very very unpleasant as you can imagine. His personal hatred are those that jump off high buildings/bridges as they too tend to be very messy but also tend to have a large 'audience'. On the brighter side he recently saved someone's life when they were attempting to hang themselves. He got in to their flat in time, took their weight and held them until his partner could cut them down.
Both agree that it's unfair on those that witness it as it's something they have no choice over and will stay with them for the rest of their life. They also both agree that those that are left behind are the true victims.

My uncle was a police officer for about 25 years, I believe. All the hangings and other suicides he saw, as well as some underlying issues, led to him suffering from manic depression.

He overdosed last year and succeeded (had tried once before) in killing himself. Sad lives of police officers. He was a **** to his wife and children, and their lives are probably better without him. Having said that, he was loved and is missed.

 

[spoffle]

sorry i didnt read/see his post, i still say its a cowards way out though, we all get down at some point, its human nature but help is out there and life is worth living, mental issues or not ...with the right help anything is possible.

Part of this issue is that for some bizarre reason, people think depression is the same as feeling down or sad. They are not at all similar.

 

[Mr Blonde]

sorry i didnt read/see his post, i still say its a cowards way out though, we all get down at some point, its human nature but help is out there and life is worth living, mental issues or not ...with the right help anything is possible.

You think everyone with depression wants to be helped, that the world is actually worth living in for everyone and that everyone should be able to talk about it?

Give it up, seriously.

 

[NickNR]

I think there is still a feeling that people with depression need to "pull themselves together", well, with people that have never suffered from it or been close to those that do. Like someone with OCD, or a phobia, they do not want to feel the way they do, and many have tried many things to try and resolve it, but it is much more than a surface feeling like when a generally happy person says "I'm feeling down today, it's a Sunday" etc etc. It is often a deep rooted belief that can't just be dug up. Treatment is slowly improving, but it is still miles off where it should be, and many of the people that suffer feel embarrassed about how they feel and people will judge them as babies/whiners etc.

My mother had treat since she was a young woman, but unfortunately, she grew up in the time when it was very much a "pull yourself together" mentality, and if someone is told that for most of their life, unfortunately, too much damage may have been done that can't be undone.

I think people still believe that depression isn't as real as it is, you can see a broken leg in an x ray, but you can't see depression in a scan, so for some, it makes it less real.

Thankfully, most people will never be at the position where they truly wish they were dead, and more so, to the point where they actually want to kill themselves. For a rational person, it is something that they cannot comprehend, to lose one of our strongest instincts, the will to survive, for someones mind to have lost that, isn't something that should ever be taken lightly.

 

[piggeh]

There is always an increase of jumpers around xmas time.

and socks.

 

[Uncle Petey]

The people that say to do it at home so you won't affect anyone else really need to think about what they're saying.

 

[FoxEye]

There's no such thing as a selfless suicide, the impact on the people left behind is massive, whatever the method.

Truth is though, if you've reached the point of actually killing yourself, its the biggest thing in life, and nothing else, and nobody else matters. There is no comprehension of the effect of your actions, as everything else is blocked out. People honestly believe it is for the best and world will be better without them. I think a lot of people who commit suicide think they're doing something good for their families and friends. They think they're better off dead.

Maybe. Maybe they're sick and fed up with their own existence, and honestly believe things can never get better, or be the way they want.

I don't think you can generalise either way.

 

[bitslice]

It's selfish and just irritates everyone!

I need a shower
Yuck


"Chaos on trains"
"Major disruption has been caused"

Nothing about how someone was so ill that they wanted to die.
OK we don't expect the details, but an acknowledgement of the tragedy would be nice, I'm sure the jumper would have appreciated someone giving a single **** when he was alive.


This was a fairly regular thing on the crossing down from my village, people parking their cars on the track for no apparent reason, they've built a bridge there now.

but help is out there

Actually, it's not.
Sad fact of life under the NHS

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Today I have mostly been thinking about my wonderful Sister In Law.
Exactly 12 months ago today she walked into her sons house, walked upstairs and found him hanging from the attic.
This is something a Mother should never have seen.

RIP Carl.