Dear PoP – Are there More Suicides on Metro This Year?

no perspectives?, originally uploaded by cacophony76.

“Dear PoP,

I have a DC-wide issue that has been irking me lately, in more ways than one. Too many metro riders (including myself) are inconvenienced by riders committing suicide using metro trains.

A) What’s up with that? Why disrupt people’s travel and commuting? and
B) Is metro doing anything to combat this increasing issue?

Granted, it is a deeper societal problem with worsening economies, etc. Metro is having a hard enough time as it is with budget shortfalls and bad press. But why harm yourself using the metro? ”

And

“Dear PoP,

I keep reading reports of suicides or deadly accidents at Metros this year. It seems like a really high amount. Have there been more this year than in previous years? I’m not sure if it’d be reassuring to know that this was a normal amount…”

I thought it was interesting that I got two very similar questions like this on the same day. I put in a call to WMATA and spoke with a representative from Media Relations and he said he didn’t have those numbers at the moment but would get back to me. All I asked him for was the number of suicides by train last year versus the number to date this year. Sadly, he said that he’d get back to me and never did. Oh well.

We’ve got a lot historical knowledge ourselves. So what do you guys think/remember – do there seem to be more suicides by metro this year? Is there anything that metro can do to prevent these?