tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post4905615045172123917..comments2024-02-23T23:53:54.842+09:00Comments on Gusts Of Popular Feeling: More on subway suicidesmatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10296009437690229938noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-27347132679296271862009-03-02T10:15:00.000+09:002009-03-02T10:15:00.000+09:00Mark at Hub of Sparkle makes a valid point that if...Mark at Hub of Sparkle makes a valid point that if someone wants to off themselves, they'll find a way. But there are a lot of people who are thinking seriously about offing themselves but are not fully committed. <BR/><BR/>Subway platforms have provided an oh-so-convenient way to flirt with death until one is ready to take the plunge. I'm not so sure that other many venues offer such a perfect way to kill oneself. An innate fear of heights makes even the suicidal think twice, thrice, or a thousand times about jumping off a tall building. <BR/><BR/>Moreover, the doors are also there to prevent <I>accidental</I> deaths: drunk people who slip, people who are unintentionally pushed by a crowd and lose their footing. I seem to recall that they accelerated the schedule of installation on line #4 because of a clinically insane homeless person pushing a woman to her death (at Hoehyǒn Station?). In other words, suicides are only part of the picture. <BR/><BR/>I'm familiar with the suicides in Korean and Japanese public transport, but I was very surprised when I was in London to have been detoured twice in ten days when suicidal jumpers were found on the tracks on the lines we needed to take to get home. <BR/><BR/>One Londoner told me that the public inconvenience ups the preference of suicidal people for that type of way to go out, though he was a bit of a cynical person. <BR/><BR/>At least they're not yet doing "suicide by cop," like in California. The trauma the cops experience from that reminds me of the trauma the subway drivers experience. <BR/><BR/>Good post, Matt.kushibohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10306033998028548550noreply@blogger.com