I agree that
The Sun can hardly be described as a newspaper, but the story has been picked up by several other news media outlets, including the Daily Mail, Telegraph, even ITN:
http://itn.co.uk/news/0bb715d826e775d49881e908595ce471.htmlIt seems clear that the man was electrocuted, but there do seem to be some rather confusing things in the reports, and some questions over exactly what happened.
Some sources state that station staff observed him disappearing into a "recess" on CCTV but not emerging. Others, like the ITN one above, say that British Transport Police report that he walked off the end of platform 1 onto the tracks.
I'm not familiar with the layout of Vauxhall station (south of the river you know -- foreign territory!
), but pulling up some station plans and the satellite image on Google Maps it appears to be entirely island platforms. So walking down the ramp to track level at the end of platform 1 would leave you in the little triangle of "no man's land" between tracks 1 and 2.
If that is where he walked, then where does this "recess" business come into the picture? The platform ends would also be clearly visible on the CCTV I would have thought.
The conductor rails at stations are usually placed on the far side from the platform, and that certainly appears to be the case for both platforms 1 and 2 at Vauxhall. So after reaching ground level at the end of platform 1, he would be between two sets of tracks with the conductor rails on the far side of each set.
So did he then attempt to cross over one of those tracks? Or did he keep walking farther along between them into the narrowing gap, perhaps to where a conductor rail switches sides due to pointwork?
Either way, I don't see where the "recess" parts comes into the picture, or where he was trying to get to. I find it hard to believe that any grown man could not realize the danger of electrified tracks and would actually relieve himself on or near to the live rails.
I'm wondering if what actually happened was that either while looking for somewhere to go or on his way back he tripped or stepped on a live rail, even though all the reports seem to suggest otherwise.
Overlay the satellite image & zoom in and you can see the platforms and tracks at Vauxhall:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=vauxhall%20stationI found this picture with a little searching:
http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/gb/station/Vauxhall/Vauxhall-northend-01.jpgThis is looking north on platform 3, the train on left being at platform 1. So after walking off the end of platform 1/2 to track level, where are you going to go? (The BTP reference doesn't say north or south end, but the other end will be similar.)
