A TEENAGER was killed by a train just weeks after lying down on a rail line but escaping uninjured.

A coroner's court in Bolton heard how the body of Jason Paul Clay, of Luddendenfoot, Halifax, was found on the track a mile south of Kearsley on April 4 last year.

An investigation revealed that he had been hit by the underneath of a train, thrown more than 100 metres from the point of impact and died of multiple injuries.

The inquest heard how the 17-year-old, who had a history of mental illness and was taking anti-depressants at the time, had disappeared from his home the day before.

His parents David and Barbara Clay told how he had been due to visit a psychiatrist but did not want to go.

Mrs Clay told how she had booked the appointment for trainee joiner Jason after he was found by transport police on a railway line in Sowerby three weeks earlier.

It is believed he had been lying between the rails when a train passed over him and had escaped unscathed.

She said: "He told me he was taking a short cut home from a party, and had fallen down the track and fallen asleep, but I knew something was wrong."

Jason's body was discovered lying between the railway lines near Kearsley by transport police after two train drivers and a conductor travelling separately along the route that morning reported seeing what looked like a bundle of clothes on the track.

A police investigation revealed that Jason had most likely been lying in the area between the lines when the train had gone over him.

Alan Turner, the conductor working on the 5.58am train from Bolton to Manchester Airport, had reported hearing a clattering sound as the train travelled through Kearsley at around 6.05am.

Forensic evidence revealed that is the train most likely to have killed him.

Jason's psychiatrist, who he had been seeing on and off for a year, called him a "free spirit" and a "typically rebellious teenager" who did not like authority.

Dr Patricia Chapman also told the inquest that Jason had not previously shown signs of or contemplated taking his own life.

Guided by Bolton coroner Jennifer Leeming, a jury could not decide whether Jason intended to take his own life and recorded an open verdict.