In April 2015, BART first launched a crisis intervention campaign posted in our stations that was developed in cooperation with area mental health professionals and agencies. The agencies involved are all part of BASCIA (Bay Area Suicide & Crisis Intervention Alliance).
Large posters with the suicide crisis hotline number were posted at every platform systemwide. In December 2022, BART began the process of updating all posters systemwide to include the new 988 call and text crisis line.
The poster reads:
If you are struggling emotionally
or thinking of suicide
call or text
988
Free and confidential.
We added special training for frontline BART staff on how to recognize and help a person in crisis.
We distributed National Suicide Lifeline wallet cards provided by the Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration in all stations. Each Station Agent booth have the cards available.
BART also changed the language used with the public and news media when communicating these incidents and their service impacts. Local mental health experts advised BART to use “major medical emergency” in official BART Service Advisories instead of “person under a train” to help prevent suicide contagion incidents (copycat incidents).
BART Communication staff updated their internal guidelines to make clear they should avoid the following language:
- Person under a train
- Passenger or trespasser "strike"
- Hit by a train (instead, say a person entered the trackway and a collision occurred)
- Jumped in front of a train
BART also posted the following suggestions for responsible news media reporting of these incidents on the Media Resources page of bart.gov:
The media can help prevent suicide contagion
Great care should be given to the way in which suicides are reported in the media. Improper reporting techniques can lead to suicide contagion (copycat suicides). The way suicides and train strikes are reported in the media can either cause suicides or prevent suicide.
The following recommendations are for responsible media reporting to prevent copycat incidents.
- Do not include the term “suicide” in the headline of an article.
- Do not provide detailed information on where a suicide occurred and do not show detailed pictures of the locations where the suicides occurred.
- Do not provide vivid depictions and details of the event. This can create imagery that a vulnerable individual may relate to and consider acting upon. This includes details about behaviors immediately before train-person collisions.
- Do not include an image of a train. Although including an image of a train may seem reasonable, doing so depicts the manner of suicide, which is strongly discouraged.
- Do not begin a television newscast with a suicide story.
- Do not place suicide stories on the cover of newspapers or magazines.
- Never say that a suicide “ended pain” or “ended suffering.”
- Be careful with the wordings of headlines.
- Be careful with all of the words that are used in the story.
- Do not say “committed suicide” say “died by suicide.”
- Always include information for those seeking help. The national suicide hotline (call and text) is 988.
Sources for these recommendations are here and here.
Analyzing online media reporting of rail suicide and trespass incidents
A report published by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (U.S. DOT) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) explains how the reporting of a suicide death in the media has the potential to increase imitative suicide attempts for vulnerable individuals who read the article, a phenomenon known as suicide contagion.
Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) collected 1,173 online media articles about FRA-reported suicide and trespass incidents over the course of 12 months and found several reporting practices with the potential to increase suicide contagion on the rail system. Many media outlets in the study reported on suicide and trespass incidents in a manner consistent with recommendations. Still, many articles reported in ways that could lead to copycat incidents.
By looking at the patterns of incidents, the authors identify articles that had the potential to result in a copycat attempt. For example, in New Jersey there were six rail suicide incidents during the study timeframe. Two of those six incidents occurred within one week of the previous incident. In both cases, at least one of the reports about the first incident highlighted the act of suicide by using “suicide” in the headline, and in several cases described the actions of the individual involved.
Based on the findings of this research, the Volpe Center concluded that the development of rail-specific recommendations for how to report on railway fatalities could help to encourage more responsible reporting practices and thus mitigate the risk of suicide contagion.
BART experiences suicide clusters
BART specifically has experienced clusters of suicide incidents following extensive media coverage of suicides. In recent years, twice we have experienced two incidents on the same day. We also had three incidents in a two-week period, and two incidents within the same week. We had a suicide death occur 12 hours following extensive media coverage of a person in crisis lying on our tracks but then helped up to safety by passengers.
Know the signs of someone in crisis
Warning Signs (verbal and physical cues)
How are they acting?
- Are they agitated, nervous, pacing, are they near the edge of the platform?
- Are they watching multiple trains go by and not getting on one?
What are they saying?
- Are they talking about jumping, are they crying? Do they feel trapped?
- What is their mood?
- Are they sad, angry, distraught, or staring blankly into the trackway?
Make connection; Ask a Question; Save a Life
What do you say?
- Are you okay?
- Do you want to talk?
- Are you thinking about suicide?
- Can you come upstairs with me?
- I’m going to call someone to help you
- I’m going to stay with you until help gets here.
How do you say it?
- With compassion
- With empathy
- With no judgment
- In a calm voice
- Emphasize there is help
What do you do?
- Call the crisis line 988 or contact BART police at 510-464-7000 or find a BART employee (yourself or someone else)
- Do not be afraid of speaking in front of the person, they already have the idea, and it won’t push them toward making a decision
- Do NOT leave the person alone
If you want to learn more about suicide prevention and how you can help, we suggest you contact one of the BASCIA member agencies. We've listed them below by location:
Alameda County
Crisis Support Services of Alameda County
800-309-2131
510-420-2460
Contra Costa County
Contra Costa Crisis Center
800-833-2900
925-939-1916
North Bay
Suicide Prevention and Community Counseling of Marin
415-499-1100
415-499-1193
Santa Clara County
Suicide and Crisis Services of Santa Clara
(855) 278-4204
San Francisco
San Francisco Suicide Prevention
415-781-0500
415-984-1900
San Mateo County
StarVista Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Program
650 579-0350
650-579-0359