Train bosses blasted for 'body on line' delay Twitter message
Stock photo, ScotRail: PA
ScotRail has received a barrage of complaints after sending out a message on Twitter explaining that a body on the line was the reason for delays on an Edinburgh main line.
In the statement sent to over 25,000 followers, the company said: "Owing to a person hit by a train at Edinburgh Park the line is blocked."
The message sparked outrage among some, with one user, @AddictedtoTweed, writing: "Really Scotrail? How sensitively put! #Blunt&ToThePoint".
While another Twitter user, James Bennett, responded with: "What's wrong with "disruption" #bitgrim."
A British Transport Police spokesman confirmed an 18-year-old man had been killed by a train at Edinburgh Park at about 9.15pm on Friday night.
Suzie Vestri, director of Scottish mental health alliance See Me, said ScotRail had made a mistake in the way the statement was worded.
She told The Scotsman: "I feel that ScotRail didn't quite get it right. They may have felt they were doing it for the right reasons, in terms of promoting openness, but I don't think it would have helped in that situation.
"How can you properly have a conversation about mental health or suicide in 140 characters or less? I think that ScotRail may have felt they were trying to do the right thing in that on the one hand, there are campaigns saying that we need to talk about suicide openly and we do.
"But on the other hand, there's evidence that shows that in reporting, for example, you shouldn't be too specific because that can encourage copycat behaviour. It strikes me that what ScotRail have done falls horribly in between these two in the sense that they may have felt they were being open and honest in talking about suicide, but what they've done is to flag up the issue of suicide."
But, in actual fact, the phrase "person hit by a train" has become the standard wording used by all British train operating companies, including National Rail Enquiries, in this kind of situation.
A ScotRail spokesman told The Scotsman: "The wording in tragic incidents of this nature is agreed across the industry.
"It is designed to provide travellers with clear and consistent travel advice while also maintaining respect for the person involved in such an incident.
"The objectives are to keep people informed of disruption and to prevent any confusion as to the cause of the incident."
Related articles
Woman 'seriously injured' after falling between platform and train at Charing Cross
Horror as woman loses both hands after being hit and trapped by train in Ireland
Sign up to our weekly newsletterFollow us on TwitterBecome a fan on Facebook
