Friday, May 13, 2005

"...due to a personal injury at track level"

Conventional wisdom is that news media don't report it when people commit suicide by jumping in front of a subway train, because they don't want to glamourize it. However, I think is policy may be having the opposite effect. Every time anyone hears an announcement citing "personal injury at track level", they assume it's a jumper. That is a sensible assumption, but if the TTC really wanted to cover up how many people jump, wouldn't they say something else or just not cite a reason? I remember one serious delay caused by a "personal injury at track level" turned out to be a lady who slipped in a puddle of spilled coffee and fell onto the tracks. Yet hundreds, if not thousands, of people who were in the subway that evening but didn't bother to read the little blurb in the GTA section of the next day's Star went home thinking it's a jumper.

This idea of a mass cover-up of an unspecified number of cuicides seems to have developed a certain mystique. My classmates were speculating on the number of suicides per year, and the numbers they were throwing out were so high that statistically someone in that room must have had a friend of a friend who had seen an actual jumper. In another milieu, I once encountered someone who was completely convinced that all the PA codes to call supervisors and janitors ("299 Sheppard 299 Sheppard 299 Sheppard please call") were actually a way of communicating that there had been a suicide. I think if the TTC wants to deglamourize the idea of commiting suicide by jumping in front of a train, they need to do something about their policies for handling suicide before it reaches urban legend status.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey there :)
I agree with you completely, all this cover-up business is just making it seem like something mysterious and exciting, when really it's tragic and painful. People should not make a public display of their sadness because of the impact it has on other people, they should not be taking their own lives in this public manner. But as long as it is happening, I think there should be coverage of it, maybe show the failed attempts and the horrible injuries I'm sure some people sustain... let me just leave it at that. I think most attempts fail, so if the Toronto media shows the failed attempts then maybe people will think twice before jumping because they might not die and it will hurt A LOT.

David Tech Guy said...
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David Tech Guy said...

I know what you mean only I was working and this guy pushed me off a building. I got my knee cap popped out and my leg and wrist broken I six different spots. I went straight to a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer and he recognized my case and backed me up immediately.

sennakesavan said...
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John Warren Townsend said...

Two Words: Werther Effect; They're trying to prevent as many deaths as they can.

JSTBOOK said...

I like to read this post.
last year i have had the misfortune to be involved in an pedestrian car accident and are not sure about what to do next, I discuss my case with a solicitor who is experienced in dealing with pedestrian car accident victims. In that case that man has got minor injuries. & whole the medical bills paid by me. & we settle the case out side the court.(Personal Injury Court)