Venting Train driver probably more mentally prepared?

[HereWeGo!]

[English isn't my mother tongue so sorry in advance for possible language incorrections.]

There is a big tragedy when a person doesn't feel well enough and deciding to CTB. And there's also a big tragedy for the driver who is driving the vehicle hitting the suicidal person.

I don't really know why I started this thread. I'm just venting a bit...

Is it just my sick mind thinking it might be worse for a truck driver to hit a person compared to a train driver? I mean the train drivers are taught to be mentally prepared for a hit. Because after what I've read, the possibility for a train driver to hit at least one person during their career are possible more then 50% in my country. But I can imagine the truck drivers some times even haven't consider a lethal hit with a person. Because of that, I would feel it to be much harder for me personally to CTB by a truck than a train.

I don't justify the methods at all, but it is what it is. And I know many of you really are totally against this methods. There will always be awful for everybody involved in a CTB. But I'm curious to know what you think about it? Do you think it would be different between the train driver and the truck driver in general?
By the way, are anyone here either a train driver or a truck driver?

 

[music]

my dad killed himself after around sixteen years as a train driver and i am certain that the three attempts i've either overheard or been told about in hindsight contributed massively to that outcome. naturally, that's contributed to my being on a site like this too. an experience like that doesn't leave you when you get off work.
i don't need to go into details on all of that so more on the topic of your thread: i feel like train is worse in the expected brutality of it and the amount of people around to witness or hear about it. those drivers are just that, too. people. they aren't prepared for or expecting that to happen when just doing their jobs. they have a family and lives, as do the passengers or onlookers. just do not do that. horrible on all fronts.

 

[HereWeGo!]

@music I'm so sorry to hear about your lost. I am glad you contributed to this thread. I'm wishing you all the best!

 

[Nemaki Arber]

Not a train driver but a car driver, so they're even less prepared, my most serious suicide attempt involved jumping in front of a car which left me physically disabled but still able to walk.

I think alot about the driver I traumatized that night few years ago, I hope they're okay, I feel immense guilt for dragging them into my shit, I wish I knew who they were so I could apologize and offer anything to ease the trauma I've inflicted on them.

Wether someone is trained to expect it or not, if they have the slightess sliver of empathy in them it will be at the very least something they won't forget, something that will at some level cut in their soul. Witnessing these sorts of things is not for the sensitive but even the hardest people can be affected.

I'd be a hypocrite if I said I'm against any methods that directly involves an unwilling party such as a driver, but all methods leaves trauma behind one way or another; finding the dead body, realizing that they acted too late, etc, all we can do is leave the least amount of pain in our path until the world accepts to give us the right to die on our own terms, time and with dignity.

 

[Jdieiejdjaow]

Trauma becomes a problem when it remains unresolved. For example, one might experience a trauma but not develop (C)PTSD. The criteria for that is to have secure attachment and safe people to work the trauma with (someone who believes you and has your back).

If the overwhelm (trauma) gets stuck, then that person got traumatized.

I'll transition in a hotel room if it ever gets to it. Most likely that person discovering me (the cleaner) will be traumatized if she doesn't have safe supports in her life. Now that I'm thinking, I'll probably leave a note apologizing and suggesting trauma therapy to that person.

Rest of the people who knew you, if they ever get the news, will also have vicarious trauma.

 

[Michi_Violeta]

Death is a naturally traumatic thing to experience and I think the right to die comes with the duty to do some damage mitigation. Only exception I can think of is perhaps those who see their suicide as a message towards their abusers to repay them in kind and I'm nobody to judge in that scenario because they are mostly cases which involve a level of pain I can't imagine. It won't make any difference really between a train driver or a truck driver, no civilian is prepared for this. It's not comparable in terms of scale, but a motorcyclist once crashed into my car and fell to the ground in front of me driving: I was able to stop with meters to spare and nothing serious happened, but I got flashbacks for a good couple of days about that body just sliding in front of me, their life in my hands. I can only imagine how hard it must be for someone to live something similar with fatal consequences...

Your reasons to CTB are your own and are perfectly valid in that regard, no judgement there, but please consider less gruesome ways to go that involve as few innocents as possible.

 

[Grav]

I read that there's a "smear tunnel" to show nyc firemen what it looks like for someone who is hit. Don't think the drivers get that training.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

I think a lot of people in this world, just because of how "things" are, have become pretty much desensitized to just about anything, even hitting a suicidal person with a truck or train. I know if I hit someone who jumped out in front of my vehicle on purpose, I'd be more pissed at the damage it caused to my vehicle and not really traumatized by the actual suicide itself. That's just me. Ymmv.

 

[overandout123]

Personally this is a method I'd avoid. Just like many of us weren't "prepared" to be traumatised neither are these people. The statistics of the long term effects on train drivers are not good and could well lead the drivers to a site like this themselves. That's not something I could hold in my conscience personally. In addition to this the passengers; the people who would need to pick up the pieces of you and the people who would otherwise want to visit you in the chapel who will be unable to.
Literally and metaphorically too messy for me.

 

[notreallybored]

ב''ה,
At best everyone is probably just trying to get through their days.

I suppose this is in some ways dumb to worry about, but as much as everyone can use it for time off from work, let's just consider the potential personal responsibility perceived by the drivers here. A motor vehicle can both stop and steer/swerve (including putting the driver at risk). Legally the driver is responsible to avoid pedestrians although this is rarely enforced anymore. A proper train (not going to guess at any of the little tram systems outside USA) can't steer and for its weight.. the driver can throw on the brake and that's all they can do.

The train driver thus has less responsibility because there were fewer actions they could take or have to consider taking. They can't swerve and roll their train down a mountain at great personal injury plus their passengers to save someone wanting to die anyway. Nobody expects a train to stop in less than its braking distance.

Now, sorry if anyone ever got spooked or depressed by these realities, but as much as the train driver may have to decide it's a shitty job, or feel like they should increase safety somehow, this is why it's actually a bit shittier to some random road driver, the road driver actually has a responsibility to do *everything* to avoid the unprotected pedestrian, while the train driver is getting paid even for the horror show and the most they can do is slam the brake, they have less responsibility because of the limitations of the equipment they operate.

 

[Apathy79]

My friend jumped in front of a truck to do it. And so much of what was remembered about his life by so many people he was close to came down to that method he chose. I'm pretty sure that driver is unemployed now, although the damage it has done to him I can't say for sure. I can't really see how a train would be any different, as some stories above have hinted at. I'd consider it an absolute last resort put it that way. If you care about how you will be remembered, either will definitely tarnish that considerably. The driver is unlikely to get over it. And there'll be others around too who are impacted. In extreme cases, it could even lead to a multi vehicle crash on the road, or maybe derail the train? (Not sure on the train one) But there's a bit to consider.

 

[Forveleth]

Absolutely not. Suicides fuck them up. Go to YouTube and search "effects of suicide on train conductors". There are dozens of videos of train conductors talking about how messed up and traumatized they are after somebody kills themselves.
Here are a few articles talking about it:

https://www.hmpgloballearningnetwork.com/site/emsworld/news/11305947/suicides-take-toll-train-engineers-conductor

"I put my brake on and blew the horn but there was nothing I could do": Train drivers on the trauma of rail suicide

for the first time, scots drivers speak about the trauma of death on the tracks

www.heraldscotland.com

Here is a review article, unfortunately, paywalled, but it talks about how a not insignificant portion of train conductors suffer PTSD effects in months and sometimes still years after the incident:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sltb.12164

 

[iw2live_idkhow]

I'd be a hypocrite if I said I'm against any methods that directly involves an unwilling party such as a driver, but all methods leaves trauma behind one way or another; finding the dead body, realizing that they acted too late, etc, all we can do is leave the least amount of pain in our path until the world accepts to give us the right to die on our own terms, time and with dignity.

The primary cause of seeking methods like these is society does not give you an easy out. People do not want you to die for whatever fucking selfish reason they have and so the options becomes extremely limited for someone who genuinely wants to.

Of course people start seeking brutal methods, and a lot of these brutal methods will happen to involve others, because of the lack of options or easy alternatives. These methods are easily and readily accessible, and while they aren't perfect, no one's going to be able to find you or stop you in time so that they can inflict their own selfish desires upon you.

 

[SVEN]

I'm not sure how a train driver would "be trained" to deal with the trauma of killing a stranger and potentially viewing the body parts.