Newsgroups: tor.general
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!csri.toronto.edu!tjhorton
From: tjhorton@csri.toronto.edu (Tim Horton)
Subject: TTC suicides (tangent to tangent to: presumption of innocence)
Message-ID: <8901240935.AA01848@bloor.csri.toronto.edu>
Summary: dissuading this particular technique seems to make sense
Keywords: Presumption of Innocence & "Criminals"
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
Distribution: tor
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 89 04:35:52 EST

wagner@gpu.utcs.UUCP (Michael Wagner) writes:
>... by the way, I'm presuming that suicide is still a crime - it used to be
>(for reasons more religious than legal (or logical, for that matter)).

In the last few weeks I've become aware of quite a few suicides, or other
unspecified "emergency situtations", on the TTC.  In at least one case a TTC
employee confirmed to a friend of mine that someone had decided to end it all.

In Tokyo I believe that the law holds the estate of the deceased person liable
for a goodly sum should they decide to do themselves in like this.  Apparently
it got quite bad a few years back, and the japanese put a lot into keeping the
system running like a clock, so they decided to do something to discourage this
method.  I have it that the approach was somewhat effective.

Considering that a subway suicide in Toronto can hold up many thousands of
people for well over an hour (presumably some fraction of them "critically"
delayed -- not just out to go window-shopping), the costs may easily involve
several man-years on the part of unwilling participants.  Should not such
unsociable behavior be discouraged in whatever way possible?  There are other
more reliable ways to end it all, are there not?

(You can jump from a bridge, or borrow a gun, or inject nasty stuff, or take
up smoking...  or pehaps simultaneously take up cocaine and riding racehorses
and LSD at rock concerts and driving stolen cars very dangerously [sick, Tim])

