Railway deaths: 126 took their own lives

UP TO 126 deaths on Irish railway tracks between 1998 and 2003 have been identified as suicides.

The first study of rail network deaths in Ireland also identified key “hot spots” and clusters where a number of suicides occurred over an eight-year period.

Various data was used, including geographical information system analysis and the results will be used to introduce some preventative strategies.

Six locations were singled out and some of these were close to mental hospitals, according to the study, which will be outlined in detail later this week at the International Association for Suicide Prevention conference in Killarney.

Iarnród Éireann assisted in the study, by experts from the School of Medicine and Medical Science at St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin.

Meanwhile, conference chairman Dr John Connolly yesterday said Ireland’s high suicide rate in the 15 to 24 age group — the fifth highest in the EU —was difficult to explain.

Alcohol and binge drinking were big factors and were involved in one way or another in up to 60% of suicides across the age groups, said Dr Connolly.

Levels of binge drinking were a particular worry among young people, he said.

Countries like Italy and Greece didn’t have such high rates among young people, he pointed out, saying their respective attitudes to binge drinking were different.