I don’t know where I am': Teenager’s desperate final phone call to a friend after a night-out moments before she was electrocuted when she stepped on railway line in tragic accident

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Teenager Taiyah Peebles made a tragic final phone call moments before she died at Herne Bay railway station, her inquest was told. 

The 16-year-old pupil from Canterbury Spires Academy had been on a night out with friends celebrating a birthday on July 25 last year in Whitstable.   

Her body was found near Herne Bay station at around 6.40am the following day by a train driver who at first mistook her for a toy on the track.

Taiyah Peebles, pictured, died following a night out celebrating a friend's birthday in 2017

Her body was found on a railway line in Herne Hill in Kent, pictured, in July 2017

The schoolgirl, 16, called friends claiming she was lost after getting off a train at the station

She had become separated from her friends while on the train back to Herne Bay, an inquest heard at Canterbury Magistrates' Court. 

Ms Peebles was seen earlier by a separate group of young people who noticed she was struggling to walk and heard her crying in the toilets.

The group got off the train with her at Herne Bay railway station and asked if she was okay, but left her when she pointed to her friends at the end of the platform and said she was with them.

CCTV from on board the train showed she then walked towards a fence on the end of the platform while her friends left the station.

Ms Peebles's friend Jamila Giles received a call from her at 10.55pm.

She described the girl, who leaves behind two sisters and one brother, as sounding worried and telling her 'I don't know where I am'. 

Ms Giles was unable to re-establish contact with her friend following the call.

Ms Peebles also called another friend and told her she was in a field before the call cut out. The girl went to Memorial Park in Herne Bay thinking this was where her friend was, but was unable to find her.

An inquest ruled that Ms Peebles died as a result of an accident

A toxicology report found Ms Peebles, 16, was twice the legal drink drive limit when she died

Ms Peebles's boyfriend Adam Wilson, now 17, spoke through tears as he explained his final day with her.

It was heard the two had an argument during the evening and each went off with their own group of friends on the train.

Mr Wilson explained that after realising she was not with the group once they got off, he repeatedly tried calling his girlfriend but failed to reach her.

An inquest ruled that Ms Peebles's death was accidental

He said: 'She wouldn't answer at all. That's when I really started to worry. I went back to my friend's house. I couldn't sleep so I left in the morning.

'I walked past the station and there were lots of ambulances outside.

'I was worried, so I went to her house and looked in her bedroom window on the ground floor. But she was not there.'

Mr Wilson received a call from one of his friends telling him it was his girlfriend's body that had been found near the railway station.

Along with another of her friends, Mr Wilson went back to Ms Peebles' house and broke the news to her mother, Hayley Peebles.

A friend Hannah Brooker said Ms Peebles had been emotional during the evening and at one point told her she 'felt like she had no one'.

Ms Brooker reassured her this was not true and said she put her mood down to alcohol and others noted she had seemed 'jolly'.

Her mother was adamant Ms Peebles would not have taken her own life.

'That would never even cross my mind,' she said.

'She used to get emotional when she got drunk but that's true of the majority of people.'

The post-mortem suggested Ms Peebles had been electrocuted after touching a live rail shortly after she got off the train and would have died instantly.

Toxicology tests also found she had a blood alcohol level around twice that of the legal drink drive limit.

While she had suffered some burns and other injuries to the head and body, there was nothing to suggest she had been assaulted.

Assistant coroner Ian Goldup ruled the death to be accidental.

He said: 'Her telephone calls to her friends indicate she was lost and unable to help herself.'

The coroner stated he will be writing to Network Rail suggesting action be taken to prevent others from dying as Taiyah did.

Mrs Peebles said she wants to see railway stations made safer following her daughter's tragic death

Friends of Ms Peebles have painted a mural in tribute for the tragic teenager

Speaking in tribute to her daughter, Mrs Peebles said: 'She was a law unto herself. She was very bubbly. She loved to be out with her friends. She loved spending time with her sisters and nieces.

'She lived every day of her life like it was the last.'

While barriers have since been put up at Herne Bay station, Mrs Peebles said this is not enough and she wants stations across the country to be made safer.

She continued: 'I am just flabbergasted at the amount of deaths which have happened on the railway and nothing is done. 

'It seems it does not matter how many lives they take; nothing is done.

'They are just another statistic. I am not going to let Taiyah become just another statistic.'

Speaking after the inquest, she said: 'I am now on a mission to get all the train stations made safe so no one will have to go through what I have.

'We would like to make children and young adults aware of the dangers of railways. People think it's safe to travel on the railway if you're intoxicated, but obviously, it wasn't that safe for Taiyah.

'Think before you play on the railways. I know it's still a big problem even nowadays - it was a problem when I was younger and it's been a problem for years.

'Thousands of people have lost their lives because we still run a live rail; we are one of the only countries that runs a live rail now and other countries have overhead lines.'