110 caught ‘surfing’ on trams and trains

IRISH Rail and Luas staff have caught 110 young people doing potentially lethal tram or train ‘surfing’ in the past four years.

The dangerous practice, also known as ‘scutting’, involves holding on to the outside of a carriage as it moves away from a station.

In October of this year, Rebecca Kelly, Pearse House, Pearse Street, Dublin, was awarded €550,000 after suffering a severe brain injury while surfing on a Luas tram. Ms Kelly, 20, who admitted she had done a ‘silly thing’, was 13 at the time of the incident, in 2010. She fell on to the tracks, hitting her head, before she was pulled out of the way of an oncoming tram.

Figures released under Freedom of Information legislation reveal there have been 35 cases of tram surfing on the Luas in the past four years. They are split almost evenly between the Red and Green lines.

During Ms Kelly’s case, evidence was given that the placing of metal strips between the door and the body of a Luas carriage helped deter surfers. However, it has not eradicated the problem, although Transdev – which operates the service – said the number of incidents was low. Dervla Brophy of Transdev said: ‘We have had a very small number of incidents and all staff are trained to be vigilant.’

Irish Rail also released figures under FoI showing there had been 87 surfing incidents on its services since 2016. The number of reports has remained fairly consistent at around 30 per year with the problem almost exclusively on Dart services.

A spokesman said the original Dart fleet of 76 carriages had been modified to make headlights more difficult to grasp.