A FATHER has told how he desperately tried to ring his son when he realised he was on a Doncaster railway line in the minutes before he apparently took his own life.
But Kevin Goodall's calls went unanswered until a policeman picked up the mobile phone found near the body at Atkinsons Farm crossing, near Woodlands, last Thursday evening.
An inquest into the death of 22-year-old Kevin Lee Goodall, of Rushymoor
Lane, Askern, heard he had suffered severe trauma to the head.
The body was identified the next day in the mortuary at Doncaster Royal Infirmary by his father and mother Andrea.
Kevin, a bachelor, worked as a warehouse operative.
Mr Goodall said he last saw Kevin on July 30 at their home. "He seemed all right that night, better than most nights I'd seen him. It was the first night I'd seen him eat his tea."
There was no reference in Mr Goodall's evidence to what had been troubling his son prior to that date.
Last Thursday night Mr Goodall spoke to Kevin by phone when he said he was at a friend's house and was preparing to set off to ride his bike home.
"Then I got text messages saying he was on the railway line. I kept ringing him back but his phone was off. Then I got through to his phone and that's when a policeman answered it," said Kevin's father.
British Transport Police officer Philip Glyn said Kevin had been struck by a rain on the Doncaster to Leeds line at around 9pm and his body was lying next to the outer running line with severe trauma to the head.
Deputy Coroner for Doncaster Fred Curtis adjourned the inquest to await a full report from BTP and granted the family a cremation certificate.
He told Mr and Mrs Goodall he was very sorry to be conducting an inquest on a young man with his whole life before him.
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The full article contains 372 words and appears in Doncaster Star newspaper.