Shocking video: Rail passengers dice with death as they stagger and fall on to the tracks

NEARLY 50 people have been killed after taking shortcuts and trespassing across railway lines in the last year, with Leeds identified as a danger hot-spot.

By The Newsroom

Published 10th May 2012, 10:13 BST

Network Rail said today that of the 49 accidental deaths on railway lines between April 1 last year and March 31, 88% were male with more than a third aged between 16 and 25.

A spokesman said: “West Yorkshire, and specifically Leeds have a poor record for trespass on the railway.”

Dyan Crowther, Network Rail director of operational services, said: “We know a lot of young men think that taking a shortcut isn’t really a risk, that they can get out of the way of any train but the fatality figures show they are wrong.”

The Network Rail figures exclude suicides and fatalities at level crossings and are subject to alteration following coroners’ inquests.

It also reported 445 near-misses during the period, with reports of people crossing the tracks to the opposite platform upon realising their train was leaving from there, jumping down to retrieve phones or wallets and walking alongside the tracks as a shortcut home.