A TEENAGE boy, who was left fighting for his life after getting an electric shock a hundred times more powerful than the average household electricity supply while crossing a railway bridge, will appear in a TV documentary as a warning to others.

Jamie Abela, 13, of Dallas Street, Plungington, is lucky to be alive after being thrown on the tracks, narrowly missing a train, when he was struck by 25,000 volts from overhead cables while climbing Maynard Street Railway Bridge near his home.

The Ashton High School pupil was found by a factory worker who saw a flash on the railway and alerted the emergency services who rescued Jamie on October 31 last year.

He suffered severe burns and a fractured skull. Jamie, nicknamed Sparky by his friends, is now set to appear in a Health and Safety Executive film series highlighting the danger of against playing near places like railway lines.

Mum Kim Faulkner was at a party with her youngest son Ben Hillidge, two, when Jamie was injured.

The youngster was on his way to visiting his older brother John, 17, at 4.45pm, when he took a short cut across the railway where the accident happened during the rain. When his mother returned home at 7.30pm she was horrified to find a note from the police saying that Jamie was in Royal Preston Hospital.

"I feared the worst," Kim said. "They were going to transfer him to Manchester as he needed paediatric intensive care, but there weren't enough nurses so he was taken to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool." A scan revealed a badly fractured skull and Jamie underwent a four-hour operation.

Kim said: "There was no guarantee that he would make it and the neurologist said he may suffer brain damage. His tracksuit bottoms had melted on to his legs and he had a hole in his foot and another in his right side where the currents travelled up his body."

Jamie was in hospital for seven-and-a-half weeks before being discharged on December 21. However, he has only returned to school part-time in April this year and suffers nightmares and flashbacks.

Jamie's story will be screened on Granada the week starting December 2, Monday-Friday at 1.30pm.