Suicide on the railroad tracks is an act that devastates witnesses, family, community and, of course, the engineer operating the train.

Transit workers know all too well through news stories, the grapevine and personal experience that scores of people end - or attempt to end - their lives each year by walking, jumping or driving in front of oncoming trains.

Suicide forces a train driver to apply emergency brakes, risking derailment, as a human form appears in the headlights, a vision that is deeply traumatizing.

The issue cannot be easily sidestepped: The Providence-to-Boston commuter train and Amtrak thread through this region, with crossings in Attleboro and in Mansfield.

We encourage the Executive Office of Transportation to suggest the MBTA and the Department of Mental Health to partner on considering suicide prevention postings at stations, within railroad cars and wherever else the agencies might deem useful.

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