A former Iarnrod Eireann train driver has told how he was forced to retire due to the trauma of hitting two suicide victims in the space of ten years.

Joe Buchanan was driving a freight train in 1996 at 40 miles per hour when a man jumped out in front of his train.

Ten years later, another person jumped in front of his train shortly after he had departed a Dublin railway station.

Mr Buchanan, who now trains other drivers, described the pain of coming to terms with the two incidents on RTE’s Today With Sean O’Rourke this morning.

“I was working a freight train back up from Waterford [in 1996] and as I approached Newbridge, there was something in front of me I knew that just didn’t seem right. Your training comes in, you blow your hooter, the headlight is on, and it just appeared there was something unnatural here.”

“I applied the brakes but the weight of the train with the freight would be 300 or 400 tonnes so you’re just not going to stop, and I hit this guy.”

“If someone has that determination just to stand in front of you, there’s nothing you can do.”

It can be a quarter of a mile before a train completely halts in a sudden incident, according to Joe. “Total panic” sets in for the driver.

“Immediately your training should kick in, but for me anyway, total panic set in and I kinda shut down to some degree.”

“[The signal man and central traffic control] helped me with what they said to me: ‘just stay there, stay where you are, emergency services are on the way’.”

Traumatised, Joe was out of work for the next four months. Family, friends, counselling services, and Iarnrod Eireann’s chief medical officer helped him through.

“I was out for four weeks after that incident and I received four counselling sessions and I suppose there was a belief that [I could] get back in the saddle. I went back to work and it took about a year before I could relax fully after that.”

In the second incident, Joe said: “I came around the curve after leaving Inchicore, and again, I could see that there was something there that just didn’t make sense. The same thing again, I said 'this is just not right’, and my training kicked in.”

“You get that initial bang, especially if you hit someone like a human being. It’s very loud and I just went into automatic. My training kicked in and I did everything right. I just wanted to do that.”

“I went down to the person and directed the emergency services back up to them then. At that stage there was nothing we could do.”

“The body takes a lot of damage in these things. It can be quite horrific when you see that sight.”

Joe said the memory of the second suicide will be ingrained in his mind forever.

“I wouldn’t advise anyone in that scenario to ever go back (to visit the scene)... That seemed very surreal when I came across that person. I probably suffered a lot more in that one because there was an image ingrained in my mind and it’ll be there forever.”

“There were issues with regard to even the first one that were probably still a little bit buried in there but I got some very, very good counselling and I was out for four months.”

“After I came back I had decided I was never going to drive trains again. I was going to try and do anything to progress on or even move out of the grade [move jobs within Iarnrod Eireann].”

“I just couldn’t face another one of those incidents again.”

Plagued by the worry that another suicide could happen, Joe gave up his job as a train driver.

Some 33 deaths have occurred on train tracks in Ireland between 2010 and 2014, and 29 of these were apparent self-harm incidents.

These incidents are deeply traumatic for the friends and families of the victim, and they’re also traumatic for the train driver, Joe said.

“When you’re coming up to the stations and you’re travelling at very, very high speeds, you’re very conscious of people on the platform. If anyone trespasses on the line, it brings it all back to you. You get this adrenaline injection straight into you and you become very, very aware. You’re concentration levels are raised.”

“You’d hit animals on a day-to-day basis almost, birds, and things like that. And that frightens you... You get that injection and it brings it all back to you.”

“When you hear that noise... visually first of all, it’s what you’re going to see... you sound that hooter, but you just know you’re not going to stop on time.”

“That noise – be it a bird – every train driver that’s listening now is going to understand what I’m saying when I say that.”

Today, Samaritans and Iarnrod Eireann are launching a new initiative whereby every train station platform in Ireland will have a Samaritans poster on display.

“If anyone is out there hearing my voice, if I could appeal to them that if you have these incidences in your life where you’re bottling up bad feelings and you think this is the course of action I wish to take, you shouldn’t ...reach out and speak to someone,” Joe said.

“Samaritans are there 24 hours a day.

If you or anyone you know need someone to talk to, call the Samaritans on 116123 today.

Online Editors