PARENTS of a Winchester student electrocuted near the city's railway station have launched a campaign to improve safety on the tracks.

The inquest in Winchester heard yesterday that Yasha Mozaffari, 21, died instantly when he touched the live rail below a stationary train in July.

He had been celebrating his degree result from King Alfred's College when he went on to the tracks with his friend Peter Coventry.

Mr Coventry said they had earlier been drinking with friends in The Royal Oak and Muswells pubs in Winchester.

After midnight, they went to get food at the Esso petrol station on Andover Road and drifted towards the railway where they saw a train in a siding about 500 yards from the station.

Mr Coventry said: "We saw the carriage lights on. Yasha said, 'Let's go over the fence'.

"The chain link fence was so easy to get through. I worry about children getting on to the tracks."

They climbed into the driver's cab and sounded the horn.

Mr Coventry said: "I said I wanted to know what a train looked like from underneath. I didn't think Yasha would do it. The next thing Yasha started going under the train. I followed. I was worried the train would move. I remember Yasha saying, 'It will be alright'. Those were his last words.

"Yasha hit the live rail. I didn't know it was there and I don't think Yasha did either. There was an orange flash." Mr Coventry said he tried to pull Yasha from the track and was hit back by the current, suffering serious burns to his hands. He pulled him off the second time, he said.

Pathologist Professor Dennis Wright said death was instantaneous. The cause was electrocution.

The post mortem showed Yasha was nearly three times over the drink-drive limit.

The jury took 25 minutes to return a verdict of accidental death.

Then parents Yaghoob and Paula Mozaffari, of Hayfield Road, Oxford, made a plea for tighter safety.

Mrs Mozaffari read a statement: "It is our heartfelt wish that no one else's son or daughter should die on the railway lines, as our dear Yasha did, from ignorance of the existence of live electric rails at ground level.

"To this end we would make a plea to all local newspapers, radio and television and to all parents, schools and colleges in the region that they make sure that every child (in Winchester) and every young person who comes to college and school is told of the exceptional danger that exists on the railway lines here.

"We intend to campaign so that this information is more widely known. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Peter Coventry who did so much to try to save Yasha's life."

Grahame Short, the central Hampshire coroner, said he supported their comments.