Youth electrocuted after climbing over grid at Walsall's Bescot rail depot
A teenager was electrocuted while climbing over a metal grid at a railway depot in Walsall, an inquest heard.
Ashley Matthews suffered 75 to 80 per cent burns after touching a cable with his foot at the Bescot depot last Thursday.
An inquest, which opened yesterday at Smethwick Council House, heard the 19-year-old had been with a group of friends near Bescot Stadium.
Senior coroner's investigator, Bonita Poole, said: "He was climbing over a metal grid, trying to drop into one of the coal trucks at the depot.
"He touched a cable with his foot which gave him an electric shock. It set him on fire.
"He dropped on top of one of the coal trucks where he was found shortly afterwards."
Mr Matthews, of Leveson Street, Willenhall, was taken to Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he died in the early hours of the following morning.
Mrs Poole said he had suffered 75-80 percent burns to the surface of his body and gave a provisional cause of death as 'extensive full thickness burns incompatible with life'.
Coroner Zafar Siddique adjourned the inquest at Sandwell Coroners Court until July 23.
British Transport Police have launched an investigation although the circumstances are not believed to be suspicious.
