Suicide by crashing into a heavy vehicle: a focus group study of professionaldrivers

摘要

Professional heavy vehicle drivers can experience a traumatic event at work when suicidaldrivers deliberately crash into their vehicles or a pedestrian jumps in front of them.This study adopts a qualitative approach, aiming to gain an understanding about thepsychological and other consequences that these crashes have for this occupational group.We organized a semi-structured focus group meeting with six drivers who reportedexperiencing a deliberate crash into their vehicle. The meeting was moderated by twopsychologists. The participants reported that avoiding the crash was difficult. Theseevents can have long-lasting effects on drivers’ well-being although individualdifferences in the response to the event and coping strategies do exist. Participation inour meeting was regarded as a positive experience. This encourages us to believe thatorganizing similar meetings that allow drivers under the supervision of professionals toshare their own experiences with those who experienced similar events, could perhaps beone way of providing support to such drivers who experienced a traumatic event atwork.