"witness sees a person laying down on the tracks"
...*lying* down

[Editor's note: Thanks for the bad-grammar alert. The error is corrected.]

Caltrain's playbook is to downplay and deflect the regular stream of deaths. Cameras at stations, and at every grade crossing, should be mandatory. Their lack is a shameful, self serving, deliberate tactic to avoid liability.

Also notice the regular approach, which the media seems to play along with, of dehumanizing or ignoring the casualties. 1. Oh a prison died. (Days later) 2. Ok it was a man. (Days later) 3. Ok they had a name.

In this case they've really outdone themselves, not even revealing the death, until a reporter noticed it. Caltrain's took a similar deny, deflect plan with that rapist conductor a few months ago. I'm sure their lawyers and executives are well paid (let's do some investigative reporting on that), they run these regular whitewashes, but who but a sociopath could sleep well.

Identifying the deceased and the cause of death has always been the county coroner's job. Caltrain should not be trying to influence that. Caltrain should be trying to sensationalize deaths, which does lead to copycat suicides.

Last sentence above should be: Caltrain should NOT be trying to sensationalize deaths, which does lead to copycat suicides.

Police are dangerous. They wear body cameras.

Trains are dangerous. They should wear cameras.

Chart in the article demonstrates trains growing hazard.

Caltrain tries to avoid evidence, and sweep this regular drumbeat of deaths under the rug.

... gaslighting everyone into assuming they're anonymous suicides...

I am perpetually amazed at our government agencies' inability to apply straightforward solutions to problems.

Train platforms - you should be able to attach cameras to the signs that show when a train is coming with minimal historical impact. They are also already powered. I'm sure it would be almost as expensive as whatever house the fire department is buying next, but it would be a pretty simple measure for investigations. You could always record locally and pull the card if there is an incident, or do LTE backhaul (wifi is not needed).

Trains - There's already a camera on each end, adding a couple in the middle shouldn't be that hard (you need power, can record locally and pull media if there is an investigation), though some combination of weatherproofing, power and usable angles would of course take some work.

The hardest part is likely periodic verification that said cameras actually work.