BART Announces New Suicide Intervention Campaign

In response to a spike in suicides and suicide attempts on BART tracks since 2013, the agency launched a new suicide intervention campaign this week on the Downtown Berkeley station platform.

The campaign’s stated centerpiece will be signage saying “suicide is not the route,” and publicizing the National Suicide Lifeline’s 24-hour support service at (800) 273-8255.

Signs will be rotated between stations throughout BART’s system since their data indicates that suicide and suicide attempts are not limited to one particular area, according to BART deputy general manager Marcia deVaughn. The signs will go up in unsold advertising spaces at the various stations, BART officials said.

The agency is also planning to provide suicide intervention training for their “frontline” personnel and circulate multilingual, wallet-sized literature with information about suicide warning signs and suicide prevention resources. Suicide prevention messaging may be printed on BART tickets in the future, after the existing stock of tickets runs out, deVaughn said.

BART is also looking at the possibility of installing screen doors on station platforms. Restricting easy access to means of self-harm is an effective way to prevent suicide attempts, according to Alameda County Crisis Support Services executive director Nancy Salamy.

In 2013, there were five fatal incidents and an additional near-miss that did not result in injury. The number of incidents increased to 14 in 2014, and all of them resulted in injury or death, according to BART.

So far this year there have been five fatalities and another near-miss that did not result in injury, BART officials said. When these incidents occur, however, BART does not make a determination as to whether the incident was accidental or suicidal in nature.

--Bay City News; (Image via Shutterstock)