Tragic toll for rail track trespassers

Based on incidents from April 2009 to March 2010, 49 people lost their lives after trespassing on the tracks – about a quarter of them were aged 11 to 20.

In the last financial year, Yorkshire alone saw around 180 recorded incidents of trespass and vandalism – involving young people taking short cuts, spraying graffiti, playing chicken with trains or placing objects on the tracks – new figures released by Network Rail reveal.

The catalogue of recklessness included a bike being thrown from a bridge on to the top of a travelling train and 79 reports of stones or bricks being thrown at trains. Nationally there were more than 3,000 cases of vandalism and trespass on the railways last year.

There was a 32 per cent reduction in reported crimes by young people in 2009-10, but Network Rail and British Transport Police warned of the dangers of playing on the railways ahead of the school summer holidays.

Network Rail's No Messin' campaign, fronted by world boxing champion Amir Khan, works with community groups.

Leighton Walford, from Hampshire, is supporting the campaign after his girlfriend died when she touched the electrified rail as they took a short cut across the tracks.

He said: "I know how badly taking a short cut along the tracks can end, it resulted in a very special person losing her life and I'll regret it for the rest of mine."

Items placed on Yorkshire's railway tracks have included scaffold poles, a wheelie bin, and shopping trolleys.