A 31-year-old Surrey man is in critical condition in hospital after a freak accident at a SkyTrain station.
Transit Police spokeswoman Anne Drennan said the man was horsing around on the escalators at the Surrey Gateway Station when he tumbled nearly 10 metres to the concrete below.
“It looks like he was high on something — drugs or alcohol — by the way he was behaving,” Drennan told The Province.
The man, who is being treated for severe head trauma in Royal Columbian Hospital, had exited SkyTrain at the Gateway station when he decided to slide down the outside handrail.
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“He was leaning back against the wall,” said Drennan. “About a third of the way down, the wall ends.
“With nothing to lean back against, he plummeted the rest of the way down.”
The precipitous fall happened Sunday at about 7:30 p.m. Drennan said public notification was delayed because the man carried no identification, so it took some time to identify him and notify his next of kin.
Asked if netting or some other safety component could prevent a repeat, Drennan called the accident a “one-off’” and said no remedy is needed.
“No, not at all,” said Drennan. “This person wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing.”
Police so far have not found any eyewitnesses to the fall.
Drennan said several people in the area heard the impact, but didn’t see the actual tumble.
She said witnesses who saw the man travelling on the SkyTrain prior to the incident reported that he had been behaving oddly.
Anyone with information is asked to phone Transit Police at 604-515-8300.
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