From the Bristol Evening Post http://tinyurl.com/dktjl
MENTALLY ILL MAN DIED ON CITY RAILWAY TRACK
11:22 - 07 September 2005
A Mentally ill man died after he ran onto the railway track at Bristol Temple Meads railway station, an inquest was told. Francis Arden, aged 27, was found dead by the station in August last year.
The inquest jury was told yesterday it was not clear how he managed to escape from Bristol Royal Infirmary hours before his death.
Mr Arden, who came from Plymouth and had a history of schizophrenia and depression, was questioned by transport police on August 23 2004.
PC Stephen Eyres told the inquest: "I talked to the male and he did not respond. I believed he was under the influence of drugs.
"I searched his rucksack and found his driving licence. As I could not find any suggestion he was on drugs I had concerns about his mental health. I decided to take him to hospital." The BRI's computer system did not have the capability to check the mental health records of people outside the Bristol area.
BRI senior psychiatric nurse David Wilcox who was the first to assess Mr Arden, said: "Our computer system only shows the records of people within the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership.
"In a way, we were batting blind because we could not get the records from people from other parts of the country. " Mr Arden was placed in an observation room at 1pm, waiting for a psychiatrist and a doctor to assess him.
Some time before 6pm, he disappeared from the hospital, leaving his possessions in a hospital locker.
Mr Wilcox said: "No one saw him leave or tried to stop him leave." Later that evening, Mr Arden returned to Temple Meads. Although transport police spotted him, no one returned him to the hospital.
Duty station manager Leslie Wrighton said he saw Mr Arden standing precariously on the edge of a platform as a train came in.
He said: "I shouted to him to stand clear of the train, but this gentleman just turned around and looked at me blankly. " He then spotted him at 11pm wandering off Platform Three along the London line.
He chased after him and shouted for him to stop, but because he did not have the authority to actually walk on the line could not follow him.
Transport police conducted a search that evening but could not find him.
The following morning Mr Arden's body was spotted next to a railway tracks by a train driver pulling into the station.
Network Rail signaller manager Andrew Spencer said that more than 20 trains had used the line which Mr Arden had been killed on.
None of the drivers said they remembered hitting a person on the line.
Coroner Tony Woodburn told the jury: "Your task is to find out whether Francis Arden knew what he was doing or whether he could have been prevented by other circumstances." The inquest continues.
Mentally Ill Man Died at Temple Meads
Re: Mentally Ill Man Died at Temple Meads
A very modern sense of priorities there...madhattie wrote:He chased after him and shouted for him to stop, but because he did not have the authority to actually walk on the line could not follow him.