The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Action as more people risk lives on train tracks
Campaign launched to highlight dangers after rise in number of trespassers caught on lines
A growing number of children and adults are dicing with death on railways across Tayside and Fife.
New figures have revealed 105 people were caught on the tracks in Courier Country stations last year, 32 of them children or youths.
This is a 28% increase from 82 people, including 12 youngsters, the previous year.
The statistics have prompted warnings that trespassers are risking horrific injuries and loss of life as they take on the railway and lose.
Allan Spence, head of public and passenger safety at Network Rail, said: “This year we have already seen a record number of young people losing their life or being injured on the track.
“The railway is full of both obvious and hidden dangers. The electricity on the railway is always on and always dangerous.
“Trains can also travel up to 125 miles per hour so even if a driver can see your child, they can’t stop in time and can’t change direction.”
Mr Spence has urged parents to educate their children on the dangers of stepping on to the track.
The figures released yesterday also showed that more than a quarter of teenagers across the UK confessed to behaving in a way that could endanger their life on the railway.
One in 10 teenagers admitted to walking along the railway line, 42% of them in the last year and up 80% on five years ago. In the last 12 months alone, seven people aged under 18 have been killed and a further 48 have received lifechanging injuries.
As a result, the rail industry has joined forces with British Transport Police to launch a new campaign that hammers home the dangers.
“You vs Train” targets teenagers to make them face the serious and devastating consequences for them and their loved ones when they make the potentially life-changing decisions to go on to the railway.
At the heart of the campaign is the story of Tom Hubbard, a young boy who suffered serious injuries when he was shocked by overhead power cables in Birmingham in 2014.
He suffered third degree burns across 57% of his body and has been left to deal with the serious physical and psychological consequences ever since.
Tom said: “I woke up 11 days later in the burns unit... wrapped from head to toe in bandages, heavily medicated and unable to string a sentence together.”
He added: “Four years on I’m still affected by the events of that day and every time I look in the mirror I’m reminded of that one decision to go on the railway.”
This year we have already seen a record number of young people losing their life or being injured on the track