Teen arrested 'playing chicken' with train (From Surrey Comet)

Teen arrested 'playing chicken' with Worcester Park train

3:13pm Friday 24th October 2008 in News

A teenager has narrowly avoided being hit by a train at Worcester Park station while playing “chicken” while his friends smashed windows with bricks, stones and bottles.

Four young people were arrested by the Met Police outside the station on Friday for trespassing and endangering safety.

The 22.18 train from Worcester Park to Epsom was delayed because of the chaos on the tracks.

A spokesman for the British Transport Police said: “At least one youth reportedly stood on the tracks and narrowly avoided being struck by the incoming train.

“It appears he was playing chicken. Stones and sticks were also thrown at the train by up to three other youths.”

One witness reported the young men running across the track in front of a train and smashing up the windows by throwing bricks, stones and bottles.

Worcester Park Councillor Stuart Gordon-Bullock, who used to work for the Health and Safety Executive, said: “I know that trespass on railways is a major concern. It beggars belief that children will do that.

“You only have to see the mess that a train will make on someone when it hits them. I have seen photos and it is not a pretty sight.”

Worcester Park Station was rewarded with a Secure Station award last month, by the Department for Transport and the British Transport Police.

The scheme requires stations to achieve standards in preventing and reducing crimes and pass a survey on whether passengers felt secure when using the station.

The accreditation followed a £1.8m investment by station owners South West Trains in a team of rail community officers, who patrol stations and trains on the network in an attempt to provide a safer railway.