A TEENAGER WHO became stuck on a railway line telephoned his father begging for help in the moments before he was fatally struck by an oncoming train, an inquest heard yesterday.
Fourteen-year-old Ryan Quinn was killed when he was hit by a train at Ballyreagh railway track in Portrush at around 11pm on January 30, 2009. He sustained multiple injuries.
Coroner John Leckey agreed with the pathologist that bruising around Quinn’s hand indicated his that knuckle had become stuck on the wooden cattle-grid crossing on the track, the BBC reports. He added that there was reason to believe that the teenager had been assaulted before his death, and that more people than had come forward had information about the events leading up to the tragedy.
Speaking at the inquest at the Coroner’s Court in Coleraine, Leckey read a statement from the boy’s father, Ivan Quinn, in which he recalled the heartbreaking phonecall he received from his son before he was struck.
“He said ‘help me dad, please help me. I was trying to get to him because of his frame of mind – he was hysterical.
“He said: ‘Daddy you’re going to have to come quick daddy, you’re going to have to come quick, my knuckle’s stuck’.
“He was begging me, screaming down the phone ‘help me daddy, help me, my knuckle’s stuck, my knuckle’s stuck’, and he was pleading for help.”
Train driver Ian Cairns recalled the last terrible moments before the fatal collision: “I saw a person appear to be holding themselves up with their arm, the lights of the train illuminated the face and you then saw the left arm raised.”
Cairns said that he believed he saw another person jumping off the tracks before the collision, despite not reporting this in his first statement, reports the Belfast Telegraph.
“I suddenly had a flashback, it was so vivid it gave me goosebumps,” he said. “I am convinced there was someone else on the track prior to the train hitting Ryan Quinn.”
Cairns explained: “The memory of Ryan turning around and putting his hand up has been in the forefront of my mind and that is why I believe I did not (initially) recall the first incident of the person running away,” the Irish Sun reports.
Quinn had been celebrating his brother’s 18th birthday in McLaughlin’s pub on the night he died. He had been drinking and was three times over the legal limit, according to the postmortem.
One witness who came forward to give information said that someone had threatened the teenager in the pub, however they had not personally witnessed the assault.
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