San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller of Menlo Park wants to see if artificial intelligence, computer technology and cameras could be used to stop suicides on the Caltrain tracks.
On Aug. 11, “a promising young 17-year-old, Dylan Scirpo, lost his life in an apparent suicide on the Caltrain tracks in Menlo Park,” Mueller, a member of the Caltrain board, wrote in a memo to the railroad’s management.
“I bring forward this proposal in his memory, and the memory of all those who tragically lost their lives before him in similar fashion, and in recognition of the trauma their families and Caltrain employees experienced as result of their deaths,” Mueller wrote.
Mueller wants Caltrain to ask for proposals for systems from AI labs at Stanford, Berkeley and San Jose State, along with other potential vendors.
In 2015, Palo Alto replaced security guards at crossings with thermal infrared cameras to spot people on the tracks.
Mueller, in his memo, said he’s hoping the system would identify people “located in dangerous proximity to or on Caltrain tracks.”
He also hopes the system would identify “persons exhibiting behavior consistent with the intention to inflict self-harm.”
Mueller sent his memo to Caltrain chief Michelle Bouchard. Presumably it would be put on the agenda of a future Caltrain meeting for discussion. If the board agrees with the idea, Caltrain employees would write up a “request for proposals” from those who might be able to provide such a system. Then Caltrain would consider the different proposals.
What an example of the nanny state and a misplaced ridiculous idea. The only way to prevent suicides on the tracks is to stop the trains. These are determined individuals who will easily thwart any impediments put in their way. And security guards? What are they thinking, they’ll need to post them every 100 yards all day, every day. And cameras are great to document what happened. Prevention? Not so much.
Do you not know how trains work? Trains take a mile to stop, it’s not like it’ll be able to stop to avoid a collision. Cameras could inform drivers before it’s too late.
Any tool that has the potential to reduce rail suicides should be investigated. However, the first thing that needs to be done is to reduce the number of copycat suicides. Caltrain’s decision to stop advertising the rails as a means is a good short-term start. Of course, it will not stop these events from occurring, but it will reduce the number of copycats. After the rail suicide epidemics subside, the focus should shift to direct action (a potential tool is identified in this article) and indirect action (supporting general suicide prevention efforts).
One thing that is frustrating the effort to reduce copycats is a story like this. It is helpful that Caltrain and the municipalities affected should be exploring all avenues to reduce rail suicides. But first, we have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot by keeping rail suicides in the news. Stories like these have little chance to help and at least a small chance to hurt.
If the suicide copycat theory is real, why hasn’t there been another death in the last 12 days?
The suicide copycat theory has been debunked by researchers in both the US and UK. We’re never going to solve this problem by applying junk science. We need a robust discussion of the facts, not censorship of relevant information.
I am a mom of a 14 year old suicide by train.
NO COPYCATS from 2017 Redwood City express train.
I am sure that my smart and kind child could
be seen as ” high risK” at 5 PM crossing the tracks a few times
before the fatal decision. Spend the F’ing money to save lives!
Maybe address the root cause first? I commuted by trains for many years in Europe, suicides were extremely rare and all adults. No security guards, cameras or even horns blasting were needed. Maybe let’s try to understand why our teenagers are so depressed here.
To answer a question above, there hasn’t been another suicide after the August 11 tragedy because the copycat theory doesn’t hold water.
At one time, psychologists fully backed the copycat theory, also known as the Werther effect. The theory was promoted by American sociologist David Phillips, who counted the number of front-page suicide news stories in the New York Times, between 1947 to 1968, and mapped them against national suicide rates in the month following the announcement of the suicide.
Phillips claimed there’s a correlation, but nobody has been able to successfully replicate his work.
William Proctor of Bournemouth University wrote: “Phillips’ methodology has been widely criticized and the research effectively debunked from within the field itself.”
After analyzing the methodology and findings, James Hittner, associate professor of psychology at the College of Charleston, found that “the Phillips data were not supportive of the Werther effect.”
Hittner said that Phillips’ studies were re-analyzed twice and the only partially supported the Werther effect.
September 30, 2019 article by the University of Bristol self-harm prevention research group says:
“[I]t would be incorrect to conclude that all media coverage of suicide is harmful. Despite compelling evidence, research in the field is characterised by inconsistent findings, with a proportion of research showing no effect,” wrote author Helen Fay.
With 15 incidents a year, the odds of a train suicide in any given day is 4/10ths of 1%. Those odds are the same if the last suicide happened a day ago, a month ago or a year ago.
It’s time to ditch the copycat contagion theory and look for different causes, like Supervisor Mueller has done.
In the comments section of a story about Caltrain’s plans to suppress news on train deaths, pro-censorship commenter Kurt Topel claimed that train deaths are no longer reported by the media in San Diego. Not true. In fact, they play up train deaths much more than we do in the peninsula.
The Post doesn’t allow links, but you can see stories regarding the last death on June 13 by googling “San Diego train death 17 year old.” The news stations spend considerable on-air time showing where the deaths occurred and other details.
Google the following: “10th person fatally struck in San Diego County this year,” and you’ll get an ABC10 video about another death in March.
You journalists will notice that these news stations don’t follow the guidelines on reporting suicides that are being pushed by the antisuicide groups.
I hope Kurt hasn’t fooled the Caltrain board into thinking that train deaths are no longer reported in San Diego. I think board members can draw their own conclusions by viewing these videos.