Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “RAILROADS”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 919 records · Page 51Linked to original sources
PubMed1994

Imitative suicide on the Viennese subway.

The number of subway suicides in Vienna increased dramatically between 1984 and mid-1987. In the second-half of 1987 there was a decrease of 75% which has been sustained for 5 yr. This reduction in subway suicides began when a working group of the Austrian Association for Suicide Prevention developed media guidelines and initiated discussions with the media which culminated with an agreement to abstain from reporting on cases of suicide. The characteristics of suicide and attempted suicide on the Viennese subway are discussed and appropriate guidelines for media coverage of suicidal acts are presented.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Psychological reactions of drivers to railway suicide.

Around 90 London Underground train drivers experience a person jumping or falling in front of their train each year. The majority of these incidents are suicides or attempted suicides. 76 drivers were interviewed in order to assess the range of responses to these incidents. The following psychometric instruments were used: Present State Examination (PSE9); Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Interview; General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28); Impact of Events Scale (IES); Post-Traumatic Symptom Scale; Recent Difficulties/Events scale; Perceived Stress Scale and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). When interviewed 1 month after the incident 13 (17.11%) drivers presented with PTSD. Diagnoses other than PTSD e.g. neurotic depression and phobic state were present in 24 (31.58%) drivers (including 12 of the 13 PTSD cases who had one additional diagnosis). On the basis of diagnoses three groups were identified: Group 1 drivers had PTSD and in most cases an additional PSE9 diagnosis; Group 2 drivers had a PSE9 diagnosis only; Group 3 drivers were not cases. 56 drivers were again interviewed 6 months after the incident to assess duration of caseness and/or symptoms and to identify any cases of delayed onset. Two drivers were still cases at 6 months (neurotic depression and phobic state), no driver presented with PTSD at 6 months. At 6 months there was a significant drop in symptom scores compared with measures taken at 1 month. These results suggest that although approximately one-third of drivers suffered a severe psychological reaction following a railway suicide, when interviewed again 6 months after the incident most drivers reported a marked reduction in symptoms.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1994

'Person under train' incidents from the subway driver's point of view--a prospective 1-year follow-up study: the design, and medical and psychiatric data.

UNLABELLED: From the subway driver's point of view, a 'person under train' (PUT) incident is a serious life event. This study focuses on the 1-yr consequences of such events. Follow-up was made 3 wk, 3 months and 1 yr after the event. 40 consecutive PUT subway drivers were followed. For each PUT driver, a control driver matched with regard to gender, age and country of birth was followed at identical intervals. MAIN RESULTS: the PUT group had significantly more sick days during the interval from the event to 3 wk later. During the period 3 wk to 3 months after the event no difference between the groups was observed. From 3 months to 1 yr after the PUT significantly more days were again reported by the PUT group. 38% in the PUT groups vs 14% in the control group had at least 1 month of sickness absence during this period. A mild acute psychophysiological reaction was observed 3 wk after the event, with elevated prolactin and increased sleep disturbance in the PUT group. Such acute reactions were transitory and not correlated with long-term sick leave, which was predicted independently, however, by a high plasma cortisol level (analysed in men) and a high depression score. Drivers in the group with seriously injured victims were absent from work for longer periods than drivers in the groups with mildly injured or dead victims. PUT victims described a successively worsened psychosocial work situation during the 12 months of follow-up whereas the drivers in the control group described an unchanged situation.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed1994

Psychotherapy for train drivers after railway suicide.

In Denmark there are approx. 50 railway suicides and suicide attempts each year. Most of these take place on urban railways such as the S-train in Copenhagen. There is a 1 in 8 chance that any one driver will be involved in such an incident each year. Since 1986 the Danske Statsbaner has implemented a policy aimed at minimising the negative psychological effects of railway suicides on train drivers. This case history describes how these procedures are put into effect.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1994

A strategy for trauma debriefing after railway suicides.

Following an increase in the incidence of railway suicide from an average of four events a year up to 1989 to 12 in 1990 an initiative was developed between the District Department of Clinical and Community Psychology, Exeter Health Authority and British Rail, Western Region. Traincrew leaders and management had become increasingly aware of the severity of the short- and long-term effects on drivers of experiencing a suicide. Although a management strategy had been developed over time to deal with what had been a rare phenomenon it was clear that such a dramatic increase in suicides warranted a more professional approach to debriefing and trauma counselling. This paper describes the strategies adopted by psychologists in developing an understanding of the stresses of experiencing suicides and other major incidents. The outcome of small group sessions with affected drivers is outlined. An account of the strategy developed through workshops with traincrew leaders is detailed and a three-stage debriefing (shock, search, adjustment) and follow-up protocol is discussed. This process is proposed for adoption as normal procedure following suicides or similar traumas for drivers and line managers.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1995

From headloading to the iron horse: the unequal health consequences of railway construction and expansion in the Gold Coast, 1898-1929.

This paper examines the health consequences of railway construction and expansion in the Gold Coast (present day Ghana) between 1898 and 1929. More specifically, it examines the differential effects of colonial railway development for the different socio-economic groups of the Gold Coast society. The case study utilizes sociological and historical perspectives to analyse primary historical data on the health of the three groups most affected by the Gold Coast railways: expatriate railway workers, African railway workers and African communities living both within and outside the immediate vicinity of the railways. The study unearths evidence of largely positive health consequences for expatriate workers and African elites, and considerable negative health consequences for the Africans employed as railway labourers, the newly created urban poor as well as those Africans living in the rural areas.

Accidents↗
PubMed1985

Electrical injuries due to railway high tension cables.

We have noted a large number of young boys being admitted to our Unit with burns due to railway high tension cables. On review of these cases we have noted: most of the burns were due to arcing, there is a high level of ignorance among the population at risk. We propose some ways of preventing these injuries.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

A study of the atmosphere in London underground trains before and after the ban on smoking.

Measurements of the ambient atmosphere in London Underground train compartments were made before and after a ban on smoking. Levels of nicotine and carbon monoxide and estimates of airborne particulates are given. This paper describes the analytical techniques used in measuring constituents of tobacco smoke in the ambient air of public environments. Levels observed were all found to be far lower than recommended OSHA limits for safe exposure.

Aerosols↗
PubMed2005

A systems analysis of the Ladbroke Grove rail crash.

On 5 October 1999, near London Paddington Station, two trains collided on a main line near Ladbroke Grove. The immediate "human error" that preceded this crash was a Signal Passed At Danger (SPAD). Thirty-one people lost their lives and many more were injured. The crash prompted an extensive multi-disciplinary investigation and hearing to identify the factors that contributed to the Signal Passed At Danger event. This included the involvement of psychologists to consider the human factors "responsible" for the crash and the broader system context, including the operational and organizational environment that may have contributed. This paper summarizes the key factors identified in relation to this crash within a system analysis framework. This framework considers multiple sources of influence upon the driver in relation to the committed Signal Passed At Danger. These influences include direct factors attributable to the driver and the immediate circumstances of the event, as well as indirect, or latent, factors within the operational procedures and the management of the organization. This systemic combination of factors, not an isolated case of human error, conspired to propagate the events that resulted in the Signal Passed At Danger event and subsequent crash. This particular case demonstrates that train crashes cannot be distilled to a single causal factor. Rather, such crashes result from a system failure in which unpredicted interactions between direct and indirect influences coincide at an inopportune instant.

Accident Prevention↗
PubMed2005

Optimal working zone division for safe track maintenance in The Netherlands.

After a sequence of serious accidents, the safety of rail track workers became an urgent and political problem in The Netherlands. It turned out that the rail track workers had one of the most dangerous jobs. The board of the Dutch Railways decided that the Dutch railway infrastructure had to be divided into so-called working zones. Moreover, to carry out maintenance activities, that particular working zone of the railway system had to be taken out of service. An essential problem was how to divide the Dutch railway infrastructure into working zones such that all parties involved are satisfied. Since many parties with conflicting interests were involved, this problem was extremely difficult. In this paper we show the division rules we developed, and which had been implemented in The Netherlands.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed2005

How accurately does the public perceive differences in transport risks? An exploratory analysis of scales representing perceived risk.

This paper probes the extent to which the public accurately perceives differences in transport risks. The paper is based on a survey of a random sample of the Norwegian population, conducted in September 2003. In the survey, respondents were asked: "How safe do you think it is to travel by means of (bus, train, etc.)?" Answers were given as: very safe, safe, a little unsafe, and very unsafe. A cursory examination of the answers suggested that the Norwegian public was quite well informed about differences in the risk of accident between different modes of transport, as well as between groups formed according to age and gender for each mode of transport. This paper probes the relationship between statistical estimates of risk and summary representations of perceived risk more systematically. It is found that the differences in fatality rate between different modes of transport are quite well perceived by the Norwegian public, irrespective of the way in which perceived risk is represented numerically. The relationship between statistical estimates of risk and numerical representations of perceived risk for each mode of transport is more sensitive to the choice of a numerical representation of perceived risk. A scale in which the answer "very safe" is assigned the value of 0.01 and the answer "very unsafe" is assigned the value of 10 is found to perform quite well. When the perception of risk is represented numerically according to this scale, a positive correlation between statistically estimated risk and perceived risk is found in seven of the eight comparisons that were made to determine how well variation in accident rates according to age and gender for car occupants, car drivers, cyclists and pedestrians are perceived.

Accidents↗
PubMed2005

Does public education improve rail-highway crossing safety?

Improvements in rail-highway grade crossing safety have resulted from engineering, law enforcement, and educating the public about the risks and the actions they should take. The primary form of the latter is a campaign called Operation Lifesaver which started in the 1970s. This paper uses a negative binomial regression to estimate whether variations in Operation Lifesaver activity across states and from year-to-year in individual states are related to the number of collisions and fatalities at crossings. Annual data on the experience in 46 states from 1996 to 2002 are used. The analysis finds that increasing the amount of educational activity will reduce the number of collisions with a point elasticity of -0.11, but the effect on the number of deaths cannot be concluded with statistical certainty.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed2006

In-depth investigation of escalator riding accidents in heavy capacity MRT stations.

In 2000, the accident rate for escalator riding was about 0.815 accidents per million passenger trips through Taipei Metro Rapid Transit (MRT) heavy capacity stations. In order to reduce the probability and severity of escalator riding accidents and enhance the safety of passengers, the Drury and Brill model [Drury, C.G., Brill, M., 1983. Human factors in consumer product accident investigation. Hum. Factors 25 (3), 329-342] for in-depth investigation was adopted to analyze the 194 escalator riding accidents in terms of victim, task, product and environment. Prevention measures have been developed based on the major causes of accidents and other related contributing factors. The results from the analysis indicated that the majority of the escalator riding accidents was caused by passengers' carrying out other tasks (38 cases, including carrying luggage 24 cases, looking after accompany persons 9 cases, and 5 others), loss of balance (26 cases, 13.4%), not holding the handrail (20 cases, 10.3%), unhealthy passengers (18 cases, 9.3%), followed by people struck by other passenger (16 cases, 8.2%). For female passengers aged 15-64 years, their rushing for trains accidents could have been prevented by wearing safer footwear or by appropriate signing being provided indicating the location and traveling direction of escalators. Female passengers aged 65 years and above whose accidents were caused by loss of balance, should be encouraged to take the elevator instead. To prevent entrapment injuries, following a stricter design code can be most effective. Further in-depth accident investigation is suggested to cover the activity of the victim prior to the accident, any involved product, the location of the accident on the escalator, any medical treatment, what went wrong, opinion of the respondent on the causes of the accident, and personal characteristics of the passengers. Also, management must trade off productivity and safety appropriately to prevent "Organizational Accidents".

Accidents↗
PubMed2006

Economic deregulation and transport safety: a synthesis of evidence from evaluation studies.

This paper presents a synthesis of evidence from studies that have evaluated the impacts of economic deregulation on transport safety. Most of these studies refer to aviation or road transport. Very few studies deal with deregulation of rail transport. There are no studies of maritime transport, which has never been regulated the same way as other modes of transport. The review includes studies that have attempted to quantify the impacts of transport deregulation on transport safety. Each study contains one or more estimates of the effect on transport safety of deregulation. Summary estimates of effect have been derived from the individual estimates of effect by means of meta-analysis. Airline deregulation, which has only been evaluated in the United States, does not appear to influence the safety of air travel. Deregulation of road transport has been evaluated in several countries. The summary estimate of effect indicates that no statistically significant changes in road safety have occurred as a result of deregulation. Deregulation of rail transport has only been evaluated in Great Britain and the United States. The experience so far suggests that deregulation of railways is associated with improved rail safety. This association does, however, not necessarily imply a causal relationship.

Accidents↗
PubMed2006

Estimating countermeasure effects for reducing collisions at highway-railway grade crossings.

Frequently transportation engineers are required to make difficult safety investment decisions in the face of uncertainty concerning the cost-effectiveness of different countermeasures. For certain types of highway-railway grade crossings, this problem is further aggravated due to the lack of observed before and after collision data that reflects the impact of specific countermeasures. This study proposes a Bayesian data fusion method as an attempt to overcome these challenges. In this framework, we make use of previous research findings on the effectiveness of a given countermeasure, which could vary by jurisdictions and operating conditions to obtain a priori inference on its expected effects. We then use locally calibrated models, which are valid for a specific jurisdiction, to develop the current best estimates regarding the countermeasure effects. By using a Bayesian framework, these two sources are integrated to obtain the posterior distribution of the countermeasure effectiveness. As a result, the outputs provide information not only of the expected collision response to a specific countermeasure but also its variance and corresponding probability distribution for a range of likely values. Examples from Canadian highway-railway grade crossing data are used to illustrate the proposed methodology and the specific effects of prior knowledge and data likelihood on the combined estimates of countermeasure effects.

Accident Prevention↗
PubMed2006

Rail safety and rail privatisation in Britain.

British Rail (BR), the former unified main line railway operator in Great Britain, was divided into about 100 separate organisations and privatised from April 1994. There was concern in the run-up to privatisation that the fragmentation of the system and the entry of new operators might compromise safety. This paper investigates what has happened to safety by analysing data on almost all fatal railway accidents, together with the most important non-fatal train accidents, from 1967 to 2003, with additional brief analyses back to 1946. BR had achieved downward trends in the mean numbers of accidents per train-kilometre for all the main classes of accident in the 27 years up to 1993, and the paper takes the extrapolation of these favourable trends as the yardstick by which to judge the safety performance of the privatised railway. The paper finds that the privatised railway had fewer accidents than this yardstick for all classes of accident. Only one indicator is adverse: the number of fatalities in train collisions and derailments is higher than expected, because of the severity of the accident at Ladbroke Grove in 1999. The principal conclusion is that there is no evidence that privatisation caused railway safety to deteriorate.

Accidents↗
PubMed2005

Evaluating change in physical activity with the building of a multi-use trail.

BACKGROUND: Cross-sectional studies suggest a positive association between the presence of trails and physical activity participation. Prospective evaluations of the impact of building a multi-use trail, in terms of change in physical activity levels among nearby residents, are needed. DESIGN: The study was designed as a quasi-experimental noncontrol pre-post design. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Participants included 366 adults aged > or =18 years living within 2 miles of the evaluated trail. INTERVENTION: A railway of >23 miles was under development for conversion to a multi-use trail in central North Carolina. A segment of the trail was evaluated by randomly selecting and telephone interviewing adults living within 2 miles of the planned trail before trail construction began and approximately 2 months after completion of construction. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcomes were time spent in leisure activity, leisure activity near home, walking, bicycling, moderate activity, vigorous activity, and transportation activity. RESULTS: At follow-up, of the 366 adults living within 2 miles of the trail, 11.0% had not heard of the trail, and 23.1% had heard of the trail and had used it at least once. In multivariable logistic models, leisure activity, leisure activity near home, moderate activity, vigorous activity, and walking for transportation did not significantly change for those who used the trail compared to those not using the trail. CONCLUSIONS: This prospective study of the building of a multi-use trail did not demonstrate an increase in physical activity among adults living near the trail. Other prospective studies are encouraged, to take advantage of rigorously evaluating different types of trails that are to be constructed in rural and urban settings.

Adolescent↗