Teen struck by train was distracted by phone

ONE moment, a teenager from Perth was on his way to soccer training, the next he blacked out when a 180-tonne train smashed into him.

MANY of us have been accused of being glued to out smartphones, but 17-year-old Aung Su learnt to always be aware of his surroundings in the hardest way imaginable.

The teenager from Perth doesn’t remember the moment he was wiped out by a 180-tonne train, which violently dragged him along the ground at Kenwick train station just before 4pm on Thursday.

He was on his way to soccer training when he walked around the boom gates and across the tracks.

However, when the high school student was chatting on his phone, a four-carriage train travelling up to 40km/h took him out and dragged him for 100 metres.

Aung is lucky to be alive. Picture: Channel 9

He is lucky to be alive — suffering only a broken collar bone, cuts to his face and muscle damage, despite the horrific collision.

Now, the Year 12 student has revealed he wasn’t paying attention because he was distracted by a conversation on his phone.

“I thought it was a dream when I woke up but then I saw people around, and then my mum crying on the side and I knew it wasn’t a dream ... But I couldn’t speak,” he told 9 News.

“I didn’t hear anything, when I was on my phone it felt like I was on my own little world.

“I wasn’t thinking in that moment, I was on my phone, I was walking, there was nothing wrong with the driver who was driving the train.”

When strangers who rushed to help told Aung what had happened, the student thought he was dead.

Aung Su said he was "in his own little world". Picture: Channel 9

“It was pretty bad,” he said. “I am just happy to be alive.”

Royal Perth Hospital chief trauma surgeon Sudhakar Rao told Perth Now that Aung was just seconds from death and was extremely lucky his injuries were so minor.

“If he was just a little bit later and he got hit by a train, he would have lost limbs,” he said.

Dr Rao said distraction was a major factor leading to death or injury in recent years.

According to the Public Transport Authority, the number of people who are injured or almost injured by trains is on the rise.

There were 918 accidents in Perth last year, up from 650 two years earlier.