TO PREVENT SOME SUICIDES, IT MAY BE TIME TO INSTALL AN ELECTRIC CHAIN LINK FENCE ON EITHER SIDE OF THE TRACKS. AS A TAX PAYER I WOULD FEEL GOOD TO SPEND MY MONEY ON SUICIDE PREVENTION.

It is heart wrenching to think that a 24 year person doing this kind of act. I guess things must have been so bad for him that prompted him to seek a sad decision. Not sure if this is anything to do with this economy or what not. I wish our society would become more empathetic and also hope that the greedy public officials would let the tax payers money used for society instead of them taking home in salaries and benefits and buying luxury goods. Shame on you all city officials, school officials,police,fire fighters,etc...

This suicide is very sad and the U.S. is going through tough times. I do question why there is so much anger towards teachers and government workers. Bankers around the world cheated taxpayers and created a world-wide economic disaster. Even conservative pieces like "The Economist" fully acknowledge this point. The rich are united in protecting the rich. The rest of us are too busy fighting each other to protect themselves. Come on, teachers & government workers are the enemy, seriously?

To: jupiterk, a resident of the Gemello neighborhood, You said city officials, police, fire fighters, and SCHOOLS are the ones to blame? As someone who proudly works for the public schools, I don't see how they can be related. If anything, teachers should be paid more.

You might as well blame professional athletes or actors who are paid millions $$. That's where our society is wrong.

Jupiterk,
How you can somehow equate pension reform with this young man's hopelessness & despair, and ultimate tragedy, is beyond reason. Jupiterk minus the U-P-I-T says it all. My heart goes out to those people close to this gentleman for his untimely death.

In Japan, when someone commits suicide on the tracks and trains are delayed, the family is charged for the railroad's lost revenue. Maybe we should try it too.

Jupiterk is just ignorant. If the wind blows, he will blame it also on city/school officials.

"The calls are tracked to determine if the signs are an effective tool for suicide prevention."

Great. That will probably actually DETER people from using that service if they know that. Sigh. I don't think that's something you should publicize.

I'm sorry. I was off my meds yesterday so I was a complete idiot.

There is still a social stigma in our society regarding mental illness. There's money bookmarked for the building of fences, to prevent train jumpers, but the money from social services and counseling that actually benefits those that are mentally ill-- those who could be potentially be suicidal are cut. And, many in society still think talking about suicide is a taboo subject, when studies show actually talking about it reduces the incidences. We have much to learn about mental health in this country.

There is one guaranteed way to reduce Caltrain suicides and that is to stop belly aching and support the construction of high speed rail on the peninsula corridor. IF they build it correctly and IF they OPERATE it correctly, the ability for a suicidal person to even get close to a train is severely reduced.

There will be no more grade crossings. Vehicular collisions with trains will cease. Access to the tracks will become very difficult, except at platforms. If they operate the express trains on the inner two of the four tracks, they can be completely fenced, even in the stations. The only way someone could step in front of one is when a train is stopping at the platform. This is less likely to occur since a suicidal person is apt to not want to be stopped by bystanders.

But what does Caltrain do? Spends millions on ineffective crossing gates and fences that do not keep a determined suicidal person off the tracks. The railroad has operated 150 years without major issues, but they still think a little unlocked gate and a sign will stop someone. They are $30million short for their budget, but are spending millions on capital projects that will be torn up and removed in less than ten years.

Where is the logic in this people??????

There is none. it is simply overpaid public officials more concerned with maintaining their paychecks and pensions than operating an effective and efficient railroad...

Oh yeah... and to the staff writers...

You don't get struck by a train, you step in front of a train...

You don't get killed by a train, you kill yourself and use the train as your suicidal device.

The headline should read, "man kills himself by stepping in front of train".

It's not the train's fault. It never is. People and objects getting hit by trains are not accidents. They are intentional and or negligent acts of stupidity...