Although high-profile train derailments and collisions at crossings draw the most attention, the deadliest issue on America’s rail system may be going unnoticed.
Reports issued by the US Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) claim suicides account for less than 30 percent of all rail fatalities in the country over the past decade.
But recent research, supported by multiple industry experts interviewed by DailyMail.com, suggests that the majority of all deaths involving trains in the US are intentional and self-inflicted.
That would means that rail operators tasked with reporting casualty incidents to the FRA are miscategorizing hundreds of suicides as accidents each year, including in some cases where the local coroner ruled the death a suicide.
‘We’re treating a problem that we haven’t diagnosed correctly,’ said Kurt Topel, a rail safety expert who has studied the issue. ‘And so we’re treating a disease that the patient doesn’t have, and we’re not treating a disease that it does have.’
Federal data (above) claim that suicides account for less than 30 percent of all rail fatalities in the country, but experts believe suicides are dramatically undercounted
In 2022, the most recent year with complete data, there were 1,123 total deaths on US rails, including 217 officially listed as suicides, or 19 percent of the total, according to official FRA data.
But in an interview, Topel told DailyMail.com that he believes those figures are wildly inaccurate, and falsely label more than half of actual suicides as accidental.
In 2022, Topel published a study examining all railroad fatalities in Illinois for 2019, and comparing the official FRA incident reports with local police and coroner reports from each death.
He found that, even in some cases where the coroner eventually ruled the death a suicide, the railroad operator failed to update its casualty report to the FRA.
Another, less common issue, he identified is that some deaths that appeared definitively intentional in police reports were ruled ‘undetermined’ by coroners, perhaps in deference to family sensitivities.
Overall, Topel found that less than half of official suicides were reported correctly in the FRA data he audited, and that more than half of all rail fatalities covered in the review were self-inflicted.
Those figures are more in line with Europe, where officials say suicides account for about 75 percent of all fatalities on railways.
Topel said that he is working on additional research on rail deaths in Florida over multiple years, and that the initial findings support his contention that rail suicides are underreported.
He grew passionate about the issue of rail safety after a personal tragedy in 2011, when his daughter, just 20 years old and a senior at Boston College, was struck and killed by a train.
‘The years between 2011 and 2013 are a blur — total devastation,’ Topel recalled. ‘At some point, we decided we would find ways to prevent some parents from the same devastation.’
Topel found that less than half of official suicides were reported correctly in the FRA data he audited, and that more than half of all rail fatalities in the review were self-inflicted (stock)
Christopher Barkan, a University of Illinois professor and director of the school’s Rail Transportation and Engineering Center, called the research ‘high quality’ and told DailyMail.com that it merits further investigation.
‘What needs to be done is a much broader scale study,’ he said, calling on the FRA to conduct a rigorous audit of its fatality data.
‘The shocking (to me) part of Kurt’s analysis is that in some cases a subsequent finding of suicide by the coroner or medical examiner does not lead to a modified record being reported to the Federal Railroad Administration,’ said Northwestern University economics professor Ian Savage, who studies rail safety, in an email.
Why are rail suicides going undercounted in the US?
Full-year rail fatality data for 2023 newly released by the FRA on Friday illustrates some of the issues with the way deaths are reported.
Typically, any death away from a grade-level crossing is automatically listed as a ‘trespasser’ at first, a category that includes people struck as they are walking along the tracks or attempting to cross them outside a designated crossing.
If a local coroner later rules the death a suicide, the railroad operator is supposed to go back and update the FRA incident report with the finding, at which point the death is confusingly removed from ‘total’ deaths and added to a separate ledger for suicides.
But a coroner’s ruling can take many months, delaying the reclassification.
Thus for 2023, it currently appears that out of all 1,183 rail deaths, only 14 percent were suicides, compared to the 24 percent average reported from 2014 to 2022.
Over time, as some 2023 deaths are reclassified, the total will remain the same, but the share counted as suicides will rise, likely ending up in line with recent years.
But Topel’s research suggests that, whether due to carelessness or some kind of faulty process, many deaths that are eventually ruled suicides by coroners are never updated in the FRA count.
Although train engineers may often have definitive insights into whether someone intended to be struck by their trains, railroads insist that their hands are tied to quickly rule deaths as suicides.
A spokesperson for Union Pacific, one of the nation’s largest railroads, told DailyMail.com in a statement: ‘Union Pacific reports suicides to the Federal Railroad Administration when we have the proper documentation from a public official.’
The statement added: ‘Under Federal Railroad Administration rules, only a public official, such as a coroner, can make the determination that a death is a suicide, which can take up to a year in some jurisdictions to receive an official ruling.
‘Union Pacific is committed to safety and suicide prevention by working to keep trespassers off our right-of-ways and more than 32,000 miles of track.’
Topel told DailyMail.com that he believes official figures are wildly inaccurate, and falsely label more than half of actual suicides as accidental
National passenger rail service Amtrak declined to immediately comment, while BNSF Railway, the largest US railroad by track miles, referred inquiries to an industry group, the Association of American Railroads.
‘Trespassing and suicide fatalities remain a persistent challenge across the nation’s railroads,’ an AAR spokeswoman said in a statement, noting that ‘coroners, not the railroads, are ultimately responsible’ for ruling rail deaths suicides.
The FRA has not responded to DailyMail.com requests for comment.
Experts say that accurately understanding whether most train deaths are accidental or self-inflicted is key to addressing the problem and reducing fatalities.
‘Those are two very different phenomenon and call for very different corrective and preventive measures, so that’s why it’s important,’ said Barkan.
He noted that over the past 30 years, US railroads have generally grown much safer, with fewer derailments and deaths at crossings.
The one exception to the trend is in deaths of ‘trespassers’ which has remained steady with little improvement over recent decades.
Topel notes that some of the measures that could be effective at reducing accidental deaths, like big warnings reminding people of the fatal nearby danger, could actually exacerbate the issue of suicide.
‘Those who are not aware of the danger, you need to educate them. For those who are [seeking to harm themselves] you actually probably don’t want to remind them of the tracks,’ he said.
He noted that most rail safety initiatives are focused on raising awareness of the dangers of trains, on the presumption that most deaths on tracks are accidents.
‘I actually think not only is it not helping, I actually think it’s hurting,’ he said.
For confidential support, call or text the US Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.