Suicides on Railroad Tracks are Up This Year

Before I left the office this afternoon I received an email from New Jersey Transit saying that a tresspasser on the tracks nearMetropark was killed.  When I got to Newark Penn Station the board stated that the train that I normally take was 30 minutes late.  At that point I decided to take the PATH to Manhattan.  Even though the PATH makes several stops, I felt it would be the lesser of two evils since I didn’t know how long the NJ Transit train would be delayed.  They were not cross honoring tickets, but I would rather lose $2.50 than face the aggravation of a long delay.

I just found this article on the New Jersey 101.5 web site stating that 23 people this year were found on the tracks shared by New Jersey Transit and Amtrak.  Most of them were suicides. Anecdotally, I have heard of suicides on the NYC subway and the LIRR.  I guess it is the easy way to die.  Likely, the person is killed instantly.  So sad.