A TRAIN driver involved in an accident that claimed the lives of two schoolboys broke his silence last night to speak of his determination to prevent it ever happening again.

Andy Scott was driving the Manchester Airport to Newcastle train when it hit 15-year-old Stuart Adams and his friend, Lee Mullis,14, at the Five Arches Bridge, in Darlington. The teenagers were killed instantly.

Last night, Mr Scott took the decision to speak about the accident in the hope it will avoid future tragedies.

The 36-year-old, who has a six-year-old daughter, revealed how he wants to visit schools and speak to children as a way of drumming home the dangers.

He said: "I want to do anything I can to get the message across. I will go into schools to educate these kids and help to make them realise how dangerous the railways are.

"There are so many hidden factors on the railways, even trained people get caught out."

Mr Scott's decision has been applauded by Stuart's father, Trevor Adams, who said: "We feel for this man, he has gone through such a traumatic time.

"I know if he had been able to swerve out the way, he would have done.

"We have to make sure this doesn't happen again and he will get the message across better than the police, better than the authorities, the kids will have to listen."

Mr Scott, 36, from Morpeth Northumberland, works for Northern Rail but was contracted to drive for Transpennine Express the night of the accident, on Good Friday.

He said: "I had just left Darlington and the train had started accelerating to get up to the limit of 90mph, I think I was doing 50 to 60mph.

"It was very dark because the bridge is high up and there are no street lights.

"Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a person wearing a hood.

"I lost sight of him, sounded my emergency horn and hit my emergency brake. I knew straight away I had hit him."

Mr Scott's first day back at work was the day of Stuart and Lee's funeral. He said he had to force himself to go back to work, because he did not want to become another victim of the tragedy.

"I hope that something good can come out of this, that is what I want," he said.

"I will never be able to get the scene out of my mind, I can still picture it now and I think about it every day.

"I just want to highlight how dangerous trespassing on the railway line can be."

The tragedy prompted The Northern Echo to launch its No Messin' campaign, in conjunction with Network Rail and with the support of both boys' parents, earlier this month.

The campaign aims to highlight the dangers of trespassing on railway lines and promote positive activities for young people as an alternative to railway crime.

Mr Scott's determination to talk about his experiences has won praise from people across the industry.

Northern Rail is in the process of recruiting six train crew members to support its school liaison officer, Chris Leech, in its schools programme, intended to educate youngsters about the dangers.

Northern Rail's communications manager, Howard Keal, said yesterday: "Andy has already volunteered.

"It is massively to his credit that he is determined to do whatever he can to prevent another unnecessary death on the tracks. A fatality is incredibly traumatic for any driver, some of them never manage to get behind the controls of a train again.

"Our hearts go out to the family whenever something like this happens."

David Mallender, spokes-man for Transpennine Express, said: "This underlines that there is a human story underneath, this incident involved people just going about their day job.

"Please, please think twice before going on railway lines."

Carolyn Watson, a Network Rail spokeswoman, said: "One of the most important messages we give when talking about railway safety is the wide range of people who can be affected when anyone commits a crime on the railway.

"It is a brave decision to face the distress of what happened in order to help prevent more lives being lost and we very much welcome and support the stand he has decided to take."

Alan Milburn, MP for Darlington, said: "This was a truly terrible tragedy for all involved. I only hope youngsters learn from this man's experience, which must act as a powerful deterrent.