DOZY DRUNK ESCAPES DEATH AFTER LYING DOWN ON RAILWAY TRACKS AND BEING RUN OVER BY TRAIN!

A traumatised driver was sure he had killed Mr McNeil but could not find a body when he went to investigate

Please mind the nap... a dozy drunk was run over by a train when he tried to sleep on a railway line – and survived.

Sozzled William McNeil, 51, staggered onto the tracks near the main station in Blackburn and laid down for a snooze.

Moments later, a train thundered over him at 50mph, despite the emergency brakes being applied.

A traumatised driver was sure he had killed Mr McNeil but could not find a body when he went to investigate.

However, a conductor was stunned to see Mr McNeil get up and walk away with just a cut on his head.

He was later treated in hospital and when asked how drunk he was on a scale of one to ten, replied: “Eleven.”

Trains were delayed for up to five hours because of the incident in June last year.

On Thursday, Mr McNeil was jailed for 12 months for obstructing an engine using the railway.

Judge Stuart Baker told Preston crown court: “It must have been absolutely awful for the driver to think that despite his efforts his train had killed someone.”

Train driver James Wilding sounded his horn after spotting McNeil stagger onto the track before lying down.

The court heard that the trauma of what Mr Wilding had gone through was “probably his worst nightmare”.

Judge Baker added: “You put the driver in the agonising position of having to apply the brakes as fast as he could and he knew he hadn’t stopped in time.

“As far as the driver was concerned his immediate thought was that there had been a fatal accident described as being the nightmare that any train driver would suffer.

Andy Botham, from the train driver’s union ASLEF, said: “Usually, anyone who ends up under a train ends up dead or with dramatically life changing injuries.”

Chief Supt Pete Mason, area commander for the north western area of British Transport Police said: “Anyone who trespasses near the railway puts themselves in great danger as well as the lives of staff working on the rail network and passengers travelling on trains.” Mirror.co.uk reports.