THE mum of a Whitecrook teenager who was killed near the railway line at Kilpatrick station has been praised for her “dedicated” campaign work.

Aaron Keenan, 19, tragically died in June 2017 and ever since, his mum Gillian Connelly has been vocal in warning the public against the dangers.

This week, Network Rail have launched a new awareness-raising campaign to warn against trespassing on the railway.

Targeting younger people in particular, the campaign is in response to increasing levels of trespassing on the railway during the current lockdown period – including one incident near Bowling on April 7, when two teenagers were spotted on the tracks.

Across Scotland, more than 70 trespass incidents have been recorded since March 20.

Gil Paterson, Clydebank’s MSP, is backing the public safety campaign.

He said: “We must all double our efforts in warning children and teenagers of the extreme dangers they face when trespassing on railway lines – whether for fun or for shortcuts.

Read more: Clydebank residents urged to tell police when people are breaching lockdown restrictions

“Young people are dying or being left with life-altering injuries as a result of messing around on train tracks, and it is more common during school closures such as we are seeing now.”

Aaron was heading home from a party along the rail lines around 5.30am on June 25, 2017, and for whatever reason, he fell asleep near the rail line.

His family believe he was woken by the train horn from the first train heading to Balloch and he turned and was struck.

Mr Paterson added: “Again, I must commend how much is already being done by campaigners like Gillian Connelly.

“She has been campaigning tirelessly to highlight the dangers in regard to entering the tracks, and how to improve the barriers. Therefore, I want to thank her for her dedicated work to raise awareness of the risk to life that entering railway tracks presents.

“These are such needless deaths but are a regular occurrence, which makes campaigns such as Network Rail’s very, very important.”

The “Stay off the tracks. Stay home. Stay safe.” campaign will run on commercial radio stations across Scotland and on social media channels from May to July.