ARE THERE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT DIFFER BETWEEN COMPLETED AND ATTEMPTED RAILWAY SUICIDES? AN ANALYSIS OF 4003 CASES.

The aim of the article is to investigate the factors associated with survival of railway suicides comparing fatal and non fatal outcome of suicide attempts in an ongoing suicide prevention project of the German Railways AG. Cases were derived from the central registry of all passenger accidents on the German railway net satisfying the operational definition of an act of suicidal behavior during the 6 year observation period of 1997 to 2002. The database included information on outcome, sex, age, date, clock time, and local circumstances of the incidence and contained 5731 fatal and non-fatal suicidal acts during the observation period. In 90.5% of all cases, outcome was fatal with "death within 30 days" leading to a fatal to non-fatal ratio of 9.5:1.