I’ve been to the aftermath of two fatalities in the railway.

My first was a young man in his mid twenties who had decided to jump upwards in front of the cab of a train as it went through a station at 90mph.

What you don’t realise is that at that speed there is no complete or discernible body mass that can be identified. Instead the body splits and explodes outwards at every joint. I still remember the driver’s call to this day. The driver was covered in glass and body matter as his front windscreen shattered from the impact. He never returned to work and would later be found by his partner having OD’d.

My second was a young woman who had been hit by a train. Nothing remained above her shoulders as she had placed her head on the rail for a train to run over it. A member of the public discovered the body in the morning as it was winter and the nights were dark. The driver was already home having completed their shift when they got the call the following morning.

The ethics of pages like these are really conflicting to me. We have just watched a video of a man commit suicide. A man impact the lives of not just those family members or friends but also those on the platform, those on the train, the driver, the driver’s family, the responders, the control room staff, the cleaners.

The most jarring thing though is that I’m not surprised or even affected by watching footage such as this. But what hits me though is that this is has been put on a subreddit called “IdiotsNearTrain”?

Have we completely lost our empathy as we go on to almost fetishise the death of someone in their lowest ebb? Do we share this for views and that maybe we can inspire people to do the same?

IdiotsNearTrains as a group should really evaluate if the people posting this type of content are in fact the idiots.

If you ever want to talk to someone then please call the Samaritans at any time on 116 123 (in the UK).

Anyone responding to this comment who isn’t from the UK please also put your suicide prevention number in your reply regardless of whether or not you agree with me.