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Staying safe
Trespassing on railway lines is a criminal offence which carries a fine of up to £1000!
Trespassing on railway lines is a deathly offence which has lead to the deaths of almost 50 children in the past five years!
There are 20,000 miles of main railway network in Britain, and about 7,000 of them electrified.
The electricity on these tracks, either through overhead cables or a third rail on the track, is never switched off. Not even on Christmas Day.
"At the time of the accident the two boys had been trespassing on the track. David, age 14, was electrocuted when a bike chain that he was carrying touched the electrified rail, killing him instantly."
"A group of two boys and a girl were playing on a railway track collecting broken branches and putting them on the rails to see how the trains would crush them. The girl, who has not been named, was struck by the train while the boys were climbing up the embankment. It is believed that the dead girl did not hear the inter-city train coming. Even with the help of emergency brakes the train would have taken over 2,000 metres to stop."
"It is believed that the teenager must have decided to take a short cut home over the fields from his friend's house and decided to cross the railway line even though it was misty. The driver of the train never saw the teenager until it was too late."
Imagine that you are a policeman and it is your job to visit the parents of these children to inform them that they have been killed. Write down what you would say to them and describe how you would say it
Safety signs
These are three safety signs concerning railway tracks. Remember them.
For more information on railway safety, visit the Trackoff website (www.trackoff.org)