ABSTRACT
Swedish railways are considered fairly safe with regard to collision accidents, and many measures are taken to prevent such events. Nevertheless, the annual frequency of accidents with people killed or seriously injured is strikingly high, and more than half of these accidents happen under circumstances that suggest suicide or attempted suicide. If rail workers’ accidents are included in the figures, the incidence of serious accidents is around 100 per year – an average of about two deaths or disabilities per week on the railway lines, according to the Swedish National Railway Administration’s latest statistics report (Banverket, 2004) – see Table 10.1.
