BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor
With all the attention teen deaths on the Caltrain tracks are getting, this fact might surprise you.
In 2024, 19 people died on the tracks in 2024. Only three of them were teenagers. That’s 15.7% of the total number of deaths. And we don’t know how many of those deaths in 2024 were suicides.
However, the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University looked at the 193 Caltrain fatalities between August 1992 and December 2009, and found that 64% were suicides.
I’m not trying to minimize the tragedies these deaths represent to the families of the victims, but I think we should bring some perspective to the conversation.
Of the 19 deaths, five victims were between the ages of 40-49 and five more were between 20-29.
Worst cities
Of the cities along the 51-mile Caltrain corridor between San Jose and San Francisco, Palo Alto didn’t have the most deaths, although you’d think so given the focus on teen suicides in that city.
Redwood City, with four deaths, had the most fatalities in 2024. San Mateo, Menlo Park and Palo Alto each had three. Mountain View had just two. And San Carlos, Belmont, South San Francisco and Sunnyvale had one a piece.
No evidence of copycats
A look at the timeline of the 19 deaths in 2024 debunks the “copycat” theory, which holds that victims read or hear about a suicide and then decide to kill themselves. In 2024, there was only one instance where one death followed another death by less than five days.
As I said earlier, none of this is meant to diminish the loss families experience when a loved one dies. But these figures show the problem with rail deaths is greater than just teens taking their lives.
Correction: An error in the printed version of this column misstating the percentage of teens killed on the tracks has been corrected in the version that appears above.
Editor Dave Price’s column appears on Mondays.