E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Idiot of the Day + Darwin Award contender
A teenage boy was fatally electrocuted after trying to 'listen' to train tracks – as is done in his native Pakistan.

Kanwal Butt, 17, suffered severe burns and died immediately after putting his ear to the live rail to see if his train was approaching Godstone station in Surrey, an inquest heard. Kanwal, who had come to the UK from Pakistan with his family 18 months earlier, had already walked across the tracks to the intercom to ask staff why his train was late. The 17-year-old then clambered down from the platform again, knelt down and leaned towards the deadly rail, which discharged a shock that killed him instantly.

An inquest was told that the teenager, who was making his first solo train journey in Britain, would probably not have known about live rails. His father, Amjad Butt, told police in a statement: ‘He has never travelled alone by train. In Pakistan trains operate on coal or diesel. I don’t think Kanwal would have known the rails are full of electricity.

‘In Pakistan you can walk across the track.’
Posted by: phil_b 2014-01-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=384158