Helicopter to beat rail yobs
4:19pm Wednesday 2nd August 2006 in Your Town By Ed Chadwick
POLICE have taken to the skies to trap vandals on the railways.
Officers will use helicopters to spot youngsters pelting commuter trains with stones and bricks or placing objects in their path.
They will relay details to colleagues on the ground who will try to make arrests.
Hotspots, including Bolton, will be targeted throughout the summer by British Transport Police who say school holidays see incidents of vandalism soar.
Youngsters have been warned that they risk their lives on the railways and Transport Police have vowed to prosecute offenders.
Superintendent Peter Holden, head of operations for BTP in the North-west, said: "The message is clear the railway is not a place to mess around. All too often officers from British Transport Police are called to incidents where youngsters have been seriously injured or even killed as a result of trespassing on the railway.
"The helicopter is a fantastic resource which will assist officers on the ground."
Vandalism was cut by a quarter on the railway in Bolton last year from 182 incidents in 2004/5 to 143 in 2005/6.
A spate of attacks on and around the railways in the Bolton area in the last six months include:
Passengers being showered with glass when the train on which they were travelling was pelted with stones close to Moor Lane in May.
Paving slabs placed on the line, bringing a commuter train to a halt, close to Blackshaw Lane, Deane, in May.
Cars and vans parked alongside Folds Road in Bolton town centre being pelted with stones and paving slabs dropped from a railway bridge above in May.
Vandals forcing a train to stop outside Atherton station after dumping a mattress on railway lines last month.
Drunken teenagers playing death-wish games of "chicken" with trains close to Bromley Cross train station.
