SAN FRANCISCO — The deaths of two men who were struck down Wednesday by commuter trains on the Caltrain rail corridor point to a grim mystery for which officials do not have an answer, according to the Bay City News.
Despite one of the most active outreach efforts of any railway in the nation, the despondent continue to choose suicide by Caltrain as a preferred method to end their lives.
“We have the largest suicide by train rate in the country,” Caltrain spokeswoman Maltbie said today, but could not offer an explanation for the morbid distinction.
Of Wednesday’s deaths, the Redwood City collision that took the life of Gary Sloan, 41, of San Carlos, is already being ruled a suicide by the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office. Witnesses said Sloan stood on the tracks in a karate stance as the oncoming train rumbled toward him.
The Wednesday afternoon death of Michael Kasik on the Caltrain tracks near Army Street in San Francisco is still under investigation, according to the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office. Kasik, 49, was homeless.
According to Caltrain figures, last year 5 people died on the Caltrain tracks and four of those deaths were ruled suicides. In 2001, 14 people died; nine were determined to be suicides. In 2000, seven of the 17 deaths on the Caltrain tracks were ruled suicides.
Eric Jacobsen, a spokesman for Operation Lifesaver, a nonprofit safety organization that works with railroads around the country, said railways throughout California have a problem with suicides. He said any reason he might supply for the problem would just be guess.
Jacobsen said Caltrain has gone to great lengths to decrease the number of suicides on its tracks, including posting signs along its entire route with telephone numbers to call for those feeling desperate.
Jacobsen was not aware of any other railway in the state that has posted such signs, and said Caltrain has done more than any other rail line to prevent suicides.
Caltrain is not unique in the accessibility of its tracks or in the density of the neighborhoods through which it runs.
“The unique part is the effort that they go through to curtail the problem,” Jacobsen said.
Rail lines that run through densely populated areas of the East Coast actually cause far fewer deaths, according to federal statistics.
In 2001, 76 pedestrians were killed on California train tracks, by far the highest number of any state, while New York recorded 18 railway pedestrian deaths and Massachusetts recorded 13 such deaths for the same period, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. Texas reported the second greatest death count, with 47.
Not only does California host the highest train track death tally, but a very high percentage of those fatalities are suicides, more than in any other state, Jacobsen said.
Maltbie and Jacobsen said nobody has been able to uncover a solid reason for the Caltrain suicide phenomenon. One clue may lie in the demographics, which were underscored by both of Wednesday’s deaths.
“By far most of the people who choose to commit suicide using the train are male, and they tend to be adults in mid-life,” Maltbie said.
Caltrain suicides are highly visible and violent, and may spawn copycats among those seeking an attention-getting death, Jacobsen said.
Malbie said that in January 2002 Caltrain increased the police presence at its 34 stations and along the rail corridor in an attempt to increase safety on the tracks. The railway contracts with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office and Amtrak to field the 18 officers who patrol the route from San Jose to San Francisco.
Perhaps the most fabled Bay Area suicide spot, the Golden Gate Bridge, has discontinued keeping records of the number of people who take their lives by plummeting from the span, bridge spokeswoman Mary Currie said.
Currie declined to say how many people commit suicide from the bridge, but did say that every year between 40-60 people who are intent on harming themselves are prevented from jumping and taken off the bridge.