[article]Reckless' teenage dare condemned by Irish Rail

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by irish Times

'Reckless' teenage dare condemned by Irish Rail
Steven Carroll

Irish Rail has condemned a teenage dare which involved a boy lying beneath a section of railway track while a train travelled over it at 90mph.

A video, which was uploaded to the Bebo website, showed the young man crawling underneath a railway sleeper and waiting for the train to pass while being filmed.

The video is believed to have been made near Monasterevin, Co Kildare, but Irish Rail could not confirm the exact location.

Barry Kenny of Irish Rail described the incident as "reckless behaviour". He said it was "miraculous" that the young man had not been killed.

Irish Rail said it was very relieved he had not been injured during the incident.

"The young man clearly didn't understand that when a train travels over track it causes it to move and he could easily have been killed, crushed or badly injured," Mr Kenny said.

This is the first instance of such behaviour that has been brought to the attention Irish Rail and Mr Kenny said he hoped it would be the last incident of its kind.

The video was uploaded to Bebo.com, an online social networking community where people chat, share videos and photographs and make new friends. The service is very popular among students and young people. Irish Rail was made aware of the video by a journalist and immediately contacted Bebo to have it removed. The video is no longer available for viewing on the website.

A profile of the teenager who published the video accompanied it on the webpage and Irish Rail confirmed it has made contact with the Garda about investigating the incident.

Mr Kenny said the identity of those in the video is very clear and he believes the people involved are 15-18 years of age.

This is not the first controversial item to have been published on a social networking website. "Happy slapping", a game where people attack others at random, made the headlines last year following the publication of videos in similar circumstances.

"I've seen pages where groups of hooligans arrange fights and others where people publish videos of self abuse," Robert Billington, a Bebo user said. "The content people upload to these websites is largely unrestricted and will remain in place until someone complains about it," he said.

© 2007 The Irish Times

We have seen it and it is Monestervein, its a Cork bound train. Rather worrying IE can't confirm the location

Good news is the max penalty is

on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding 100,000 eur or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both,

And the gardai dont need a warrant to arrest the person

[Thomas J Stamp]

Not exactly on topic but what I love about the likes of The Irish Times is their strange reaction to something that nearly everyone knows about but they sorta don't.

Like this:

Bebo.com, an online social networking community where people chat, share videos and photographs and make new friends. The service is very popular among students and young people.

Perhaps Madam will tell us what a DVD player is next, or perhaps one of those new fangled ipods.

As for Barry............

Irish Rail was made aware of the video by a journalist and immediately contacted Bebo to have it removed.

It was there till around 4pm. Well, that's immediate in terms of IE anyway.

"I've seen pages where groups of hooligans arrange fights and others where people publish videos of self abuse," Robert Billington, a Bebo user said. "The content people upload to these websites is largely unrestricted and will remain in place until someone complains about it," he said.

I always love the way they find "Bebo user's" and the like. Presumably he either works at the next desk to the writer or is a mate of his. What it does do is reinforce for the gentle readers of the Times a view of something that really should be done about this Bebo thing.

Oh, and a last bit of spin from Barry:

This is the first instance of such behaviour that has been brought to the attention Irish Rail

Technically correct. However, it is not the first time things like this have happened and those happenings were witnessed by IE staff and therefore not "brought to the attention of Irish Rail"

It's the little things that count.

As for Pikey Mikey his day in Court awaits. As far as I remember Monasterevin is within Judge Connellan's bailiwick and I foresee dark days ahead for Pikey..........

[2Funki4Wheelz]

'Robert Billington' really doesn't sound like a Bebo user.

Are they not all like Chanelle1985 and Britney_fan?

[Mark Gleeson]

Its not the first incident of someone doing something really really stupid for kicks

There has been an ongoing problem for years where teenagers would stand on the red buffer beam between a set of DART coaches while it was moving, thats the only reason the refurbished DART have the strange new headlight pods, its called an 'anti surfing device'

I've witnessed it and I know several others have as well

[comcor]

The video is still up on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_X-02FiLUI

Why is there so much ballast missing from the track that it's possible to get under it?

[Mark Gleeson]

A. The wasters removed it, it doesn't look like a track defect

B. Minor subsidence

Track looks fairly stable as the train goes through

[Rashers]

Still up there on Youtube. Feedback rolling in every few minutes, so it must be getting linked via some other sites.
What is the local media reaction like about it?
Bored youth, or idiots...

[Colm Donoghue]

Originally Posted by Thomas J Stamp

Not exactly on topic but what I love about the likes of The Irish Times is their strange reaction to something that nearly everyone knows about but they sorta don't.

...

Perhaps Madam will tell us what a DVD player is next, or perhaps one of those new fangled ipods.

This is the same person who let it be explained that the picture of the eejit in the celtic jersey protesting about foreign games was a supporter of Glasgow Celtic football club, a scottish soccer team....

[Derek Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Rashers

Still up there on Youtube. Feedback rolling in every few minutes, so it must be getting linked via some other sites.
What is the local media reaction like about it?
Bored youth, or idiots...

Its linked all over the place. The original file has been downloaded. Stuff like this can't be stopped on the net. Just look at some of the comments coming in. Its a wasters paradise. Best solution now, is for the tossers involved to get prosecuted and for IE to wake up and run a gruesome TV campaign about this kind of thing. Furthermore, it would serve them well to launch a campaign on the net via Bebo, youtube etc. There are kids out there who still think this **** is cool.

The issue of the dugout under the tracks has yet to be clarified. Did the tossers dig it out or was it left like that by IE????

[James Shields]

What a stupid thing to do. It's almost a pity that he didn't do the human gene pool a favour by removing himself from it.

I hope he enjoys his fifteen minutes of fame - he should have plenty of time to reflect on it over the next year or two.

[MrX]

It's a pity it wasn't a MK3, with non-retention toilets i.e. flushing directly onto the line.

Also, is it not highly dangerous to remove that much ballast under a track?

He was potentially endangering everyone on the train.

[shweeney]

there was some debate about this on Boards. How could they remove so much ballast, in the middle of a station without somebody noticing?

Is it possible that IE dug the hole for some form of maintenance?

[shweeney]

Originally Posted by MrX

It's a pity it wasn't a MK3, with non-retention toilets i.e. flushing directly onto the line.

going OT but I notice that one of the evening Sligo services is now being run by a Mk 2 set with the consequence that the track at platform 4 in Connolly is (inevitably) covered in ****. Delightful.

[PaulM]

Originally Posted by shweeney

going OT but I notice that one of the evening Sligo services is now being run by a Mk 2 set with the consequence that the track at platform 4 in Connolly is (inevitably) covered in ****. Delightful.

This has always been pretty common in Connolly, it may have improved recently but I used to see it nearly every day. IE are great.

[2Funki4Wheelz]

Well the signs do say not to use the toilets when at a station - I think the message would be more effective if they said why.

[portarlington_user]

It's on Sky News website as well

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...278339,00.html

[ThomasJ]

Originally Posted by portarlington_user

It's on Sky News website as well

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...278339,00.html

associated with a picture of a virgin railcar (or is it?)

[portarlington_user]

Originally Posted by ThomasJ

associated with a picture of a virgin railcar (or is it?)

ha ha yeah I noticed that as well!

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by shweeney

going OT but I notice that one of the evening Sligo services is now being run by a Mk 2 set with the consequence that the track at platform 4 in Connolly is (inevitably) covered in ****. Delightful.

Thats what fire hoses are for.

[a_slight_hitch]

The article featured a portrait of his stupid face looking all smug and gob****ey.

You've got to question the intelligence of someone who essentially confesses to the media before the cops have even spoken to him.

Stupid people should be killed until they die from it.

Gardai to interview man over bizarre rail prank

By Jason O'Brien
Saturday August 04 2007


GARDAI will tomorrow meet the man behind a controversial YouTube video who was filmed lying between railway tracks as an express train hurtled over him.

Rail bosses insist they will push for a prosecution over the incident in which the man was lying in a hole under the track and the train passed overjust inches from hisface.

Michael O'Connor (21), from Portarlington, Co Laois, stuck his head out from the railway sleepers at Monasterevin station in Kildare just moments before the Cork-Dublin express train passed over him.

"It was moronic beyond words," Iarnrod Eireann spokesman Barry Kenny said. "He could have been very easily crushed by the pressure alone, he could have been decapitated.

The stunt was captured on a mobile phone camera and has since made the news in Britain and the US.

Speaking to the Irish Independent last night, Mr O'Connor admitted that he could have died during the prank.

Stones

"When the train came - you know the way them stones were unearthed? - well, the weight of the train brought down concrete pillars on my chest so I'd say if the train had to stop in the train station it would have killed me," he said. "It took away my breath for a couple of minutes, but I wouldn't say I was scared, no."

The dramatic video footage - complete with expletive-ridden commentary - was posted to a social networking site and became an internet hit but it has since been removed.

Gardai said they identified three individuals they plan to interview this weekend.

- Jason O'Brien