Track Tests campaign reveals rail safety ignorance

Over half of young British males think they could get out of the way of a speeding train if they were trespassing on the tracks, according to a survey by Network Rail.

The organisation has launched the Track Tests campaign to raise awareness among young people, featuring rapper Wretch 32 and spoken word performer George the Poet.

The Track Tests video has the performers test their hearing and reflexes in a track simulator. Both of them couldn’t tell where the train was coming from when environmental factors were taken into account.

Wretch 32 said: “No matter how much confidence you’ve got in your hearing and speed, when you’re in the dark and a train is coming towards you at 80mph, confidence is not enough to get you across safely.”

In the survey of a representative sample of 2,000 people form across Britain, 51 per cent of 16-24-year-old men said that they would hear a train in time to get out of the way.

But this is not just an issue for that age group; of all those surveyed, a third believed they could get out of the way of a speeding train using their hearing alone.

The majority (86 per cent) agreed that it would be dangerous to be on or next to railway tracks. That fell to 76 per cent among 16-24-year-olds. 8 per cent of all surveyed said that they knew people who trespass across tracks, rising to 15 per cent for 16-24-year-olds.

Being struck by trains has accounted for 77 per cent of all trespasser fatalities over the last ten years. Electrocution has accounted for a further 15 per cent.

The peak ages for trespass fatalities are late teens and early twenties, at almost four in 10.

Of the fatalities that occurred at stations in the last ten years, 44 per cent were taking a shortcut. 17 per cent were trying to retrieve an item from the track. The most common time for fatalities in the 16-30 age group is between 23.00 and 01.00.

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