Dramatic footage captures the moment a daredevil prankster stumbles as he tries to dash across a railway track as a speeding train bears down on him.
The man can be seen cycling along the station platform of a commuter station, ditching his bike and leaping onto the tracks. But as he scrambles to sprint across the tracks he trips and falls in front of the oncoming train before managing to crawl to safety under the platform with just seconds to spare.
Moments later a second train then passes, travelling in the opposite direction.
The prankster was prosecuted for malicious intention as he caused trains to be delayed. He was sentenced to four months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.
The incident at Littlehaven station in Horsham, West Sussex, was filmed in 2011 but the footage was released yesterday by Network Rail as they launched a new campaign to stop people trespassing on railway lines.
The campaign is aimed at children aged 12 and older, highlighting how seemingly harmless pranks can lead to fatal consequences with a new film “No going back”.
In the last five years 142 people have lost their lives on the railways, many of them teenagers, and a further 254 have been injured.
