'I tried my best to save teenager hit by train' - Worker speaks after Walsall rail tragedy
A warehouse worker has told how he ran to railway tracks in a desperate bid to save a girl who had been hit by a train.
Terry Wootton was alerted to the tragedy near Bescot Station in Walsall by a friend of the victim, who was frantically screaming for help.
The 62-year-old was the first person he saw, as he was working in a yard at Greetings House, which is next to a pathway running down to Wallows Lane level crossing, where the 14-year-old girl was struck on Tuesday afternoon.
British Transport Police said they believe her death was a 'tragic accident'.
The maintenance manager told the Express & Star: "I was walking across the yard at about 3.25pm when a young lad, probably 12 to 14, came running up here shouting me, shouting 'mister, mister, can you help me, my friend's been hit by a train'.
"I said 'you're not joking me are you, it's not a prank?' and he said 'honest, please'.
"I immediately rang 999, I was talking to the ambulance call centre as I was running down the alley."
Mr Wootton sat ashen-faced as he recalled the horrific scene he was confronted by when he arrived at the tracks.
The father-of-two said it quickly became clear there was nothing he could do to help the girl, who was a pupil at Wood Green Academy in Wednesbury.
He said: "I got to the level crossing and the first thing I saw was paperwork strewn down the track, probably homework.
"About 100 yards down the track there was a girl's body.
"The train had stopped about a quarter of a mile down the track. The driver came running towards the body."
Emergency services arrived within minutes, with police cars and ambulances taking over nearby streets, a short distance from Walsall's Banks's Stadium. An air ambulance touched down in a field near the track but the schoolgirl was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr Wootton was back at work at the firm which makes greetings cards just 24 hours after the tragedy and admitted he had been affected by what he had witnessed.
"It was a sleepless night. I just keep seeing it. I just keep seeing that girl lying on the track," he said.
"In this day and age why are there level crossings for pedestrians?
"I didn't even know it was there. It's like something from the 1930s.
"I was just devastated. I've seen a lot of things in life but I've never had flashbacks."
