HORRIFIED rail chiefs in York have condemned the latest internet craze, which involves youngsters lying across railway tracks and along the top of signals.
The “planking” phenomenon, which encourages people to take photographs of themselves lying down in unusual places and post the pictures on the social networking site Facebook, has already led to the death of a 20-year-old Australian man, who fell seven storeys from the balcony railing of a block of flats.
But now a “York Planking Association” has been set up on Facebook, which has already attracted more than 3,000 internet users who have uploaded more than 300 photos.
Many feature people in precarious positions, with a competition dubbed Planker Of The Week, urging followers to vote for the best picture.
Among the most shocking photos is one of a teenager, apparently lying across a railway track, with his head resting on one rail and his heels on the other, while another appears to show someone balancing on top of a railway signal.
The Press cannot rule out the possibility that some of the photographs reproduced today may have been altered digitally.
However, there are strong indications that the images are genuine, and the newspaper believes it is in the public interest for them to be reproduced without pixellation, to highlight the dangers not only to the public but also to the young people concerned and their parents.
A Network Rail spokeswoman today branded the stunts “ridiculously reckless”.
He said: “Modern trains are very fast and quiet, and someone on the track would have no time to get out of the way, and the poor train driver would be unable to stop the train. It is also breaking the law and could be endangering rail users.”
A British Transport Police spokeswoman said: “This was very dangerous behaviour that could have had serious consequences for the person involved and I am urging anyone with information to get in touch.
“With high speed trains and electric currents, the railway should never be treated as somewhere to play or hang about. When people are spotted on the railway trains are alerted, which causes disruption and delays.
“People who trespass on the railway are not just risking a court appearance; they are taking a gamble with their lives. The last thing our officers want is to have to tell a mother, father or another family member that their loved one has died after trespassing on the railway.”
She said anyone with information about a crime on the railway should phone Freefone 0800 405040 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Other pictures on the site include images of people lying on the handrail of York’s Millennium Bridge over the River Ouse, on the BBC Radio York building’s roof off Bootham, on the top of a spiked fence, on a building apparently under construction and on a zebra crossing.
Some pictures appear to be harmless pranks, such as people planking on rabbit hutches, hay bales and snooker tables.
Some comments posted on the site praised the rail track picture as “epic!”, but other users criticised it for being dangerous and causing delays for rail users.
“It’s all fun and games till someone gets hit by the train,” said one.
Planking began as the “lying down game” in 2000, and was started by two friends in Somerset who photographed each other lying down in public, later going on to create a Facebook group for people to share similar images.
The game became known as planking in Australia in 2008, with participants lying face down in public places, with a straight body and hands by their sides, and increasingly trying to out-do each other by planking in dangerous places and positions.
Craze that could turn to tragedy
IT is the latest internet craze. Known as “planking”, people snap photos of each-other lying flat in the most unlikely of places – on supermarket shelves, on the top of rabbit hutches, on snooker tables.
Some examples of the “sport” are genuinely amusing: harmless pranks that are no doubt as much fun for the people viewing the photos online as for those who took part.
But others are not. We have no desire whatever to be killjoys. But some of the stunts depicted on the “York Planking Association” website – young people apparently lying on a railway line or dangling from a railway signal – are genuinely horrifying. They have been rightly condemned for putting at risk the lives not only of those taking part, but of innocent people.
We don’t know for sure that the photos are genuine, or that all the of stunts depicted took place in York. But genuine or not, they could easily encourage others to attempt such acts of dangerous foolishness themselves.
We fully support efforts by the British Transport Police to catch those responsible, therefore. And if anybody recognises the people in the photos, we hope they would have the sense to stop them before their foolishness turns into tragedy.
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