21 de gener 2009

Death at the Metro

Last week the metro did not stop at Pereire, there was a dead body on the station. One more suicide, one more accident? Last week one of the people that I meet told me his friend had been killed by the metro. That makes 2 dead in one week that " Im aware" of... However, how often do we hear in the metro "accident grave passanger"? How many suicides/accidents happend in the parisian metros? Im trying to find the data, but I find not much quanitative numbers.... it seems that on average there are two deaths per week in the parisian metros/trains. How crazy is that! Just look around at certain news that are found on the internet.

F mort sur les voies du RER
RER A : Suicide à Nation
Accident voyageur 16/09/08Electrocuté à Juvisy-sur-Orge
Nuit Blanche: un mort dans le métro
Ligne 13 : Accident grave de voyageur à Pernéty
Mort du journaliste italien agressé dans le métro parisien ...

Nothing against people killing themselves, but do they need to do it in the metro. At the end that will only lead to more and more suicides, metro drivers who will be shocked, people who will miss their job interviews, people fired for arriving late at work.....a chain of suicides :) Just a Joke, but the numbers are estonishing. It appears that the RATP (the parisian metro company) has a group of psychologist to assist people that see these suicides take place. According to a Canadian study, the people that commit suicide in the metro are usually people that are living in marginal conditions and have been under the influence of drugs or alcohool before jumping on the rails. Nevertheless, the study notes that for people who live in the metro it is hard to distinguish if their deaths are due to accidents or suicides. Besides all the real dealth, there are also the "temptatives" of suicide.... which leads to us hearing often in the Parisian metro " accident grave voyageur.."