Fatal accidents due to train surfing in Berlin

This study was undertaken for the purpose of analysing under the aspect of legal medicine, fatal accidents due to train surfing in the local transport system of Berlin (S-Bahn and underground). The period of investigation was from 1989 through 1995, with 41 train surfing accidents, among them 18 with fatal outcome. Evaluation included those 14 deaths which were forensically autopsied. It was based on autopsy records of Berlin-based university institutes (Humboldt University and Free University) as well as the Brandenburg State Institute of Legal Medicine. Also used were data obtained from the Berlin Transport Police Record. The casualties were aged between 13 and 25 years, most of them between 16 and 20. The male-female gender ratio was 13:1. Accidents occurred above all in the warmer season of the year, most of them between 20:00 h and midnight. More than 50% of all cases were affected by alcohol, but centrally acting medicaments or other addictive drugs were not noticed at all. Most of the fatal accidents occurred to users of the Berlin S-Bahn network. Older train models were the preferred surfing objects due to their structural peculiarities. Collision with close-to-track obstacles and slipping from the train proved to be the major sources of danger. An analysis of injuries revealed polytraumatisation but for one exception, with craniocerebral injuries being the most common and severest events. The longest survival time amounted to 24 h. As the psychosocial causes of high-risk behaviour of adolescents will hardly be controllable, withdrawal of technical, that is structural design possibilities appears to be the most important approach to prevention of accidents in the future. This demand is met by the new series of the Berlin S-Bahn. The model of the old series, suitable for surfing, still accounts for about 10% of the rolling stock and is to be decommissioned in 1998.