Netherlands has highest train suicide rate in EU

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Of all the 27 countries of the European Union, the Netherlands takes first place when it comes to railway suicides. The Netherlands has racked up 1,4 deaths per million kilometres of train trips made in a year, while the much sparser tracks in Germany gets 0,6 and Belgium, also a country with much track, scores 0,9.

Although some 190 people in the Netherlands killed themselves by jumping in front of trains in 2006 and some 193 in 2007, the figure was down to 164 in 2008, but was not included in the report of the European Railway Agency on this topic.

One of the possible explanations for the amount of suicides is the fact that people live very close to the tracks. In other countries people who are suicidal probably chose a different method.

(Link: dutchnews, Volkskrant)

7 Comments »

  1. Richard Gill says:

    I guess we have the best train system in the world!

  2. Orangemaster says:

    That’s some dark thinking – I like it :)

  3. well, people here aren’t certainly going to kill themselves by jumping off cliffs or mountain peaks.

  4. Neil says:

    What about suicides per million regardless of method?

  5. Orangemaster says:

    @Neil – We have no real reason to post about that.

  6. Neil says:

    You gave no real reason for posting on a lot of the topics you post on… but I enjoy them nonetheless.

  7. radu says:

    yes, my trains got delaied a few times because of that

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