Luke Youngs, 19, acted immediately when he saw the express train approaching Karla Sutherland at 100mph as she sat between the railway tracks trying to pull on a shoe.

Her trainer had slipped off as the couple took a shortcut across tracks at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, to catch a train home after a day out.

After pushing his girlfriend to safety, Mr Youngs was struck by the train and killed instantly in front of his brother and a group of friends.

The inquest at Hertfordshire Coroner’s Court, in Hatfield, was told that, after she had been hauled on to the platform by another friend, Miss Sutherland broke down and screamed that she had killed her boyfriend.

In a tearful recollection of her rescue, Miss Sutherland said that her boyfriend had saved her after she stumbled and lost a shoe as they crossed the tracks to a waiting train.

“I remember tripping over the line and that my trainer was coming off so I sat down and put it back on,” she said. “I was sitting on the stones between two lines. I remember hearing a sound but I didn’t think anything of it. Then I remember Luke pushed me.”

Mr Youngs’ brother, John, who was one of the group of six people trying to catch the train to Welwyn Garden City, said: “We were trying to get back to my flat but when we got to the station we noticed a train was coming on the other side.

“I jumped down on to the tracks and got to the other platform. I saw the lights of another train coming and so I turned around to see where Luke was but he wasn’t there. The train must have hit him.”

Graeme Spong, who was driving the train from Peterborough to London, said that he had spotted Miss Sutherland sitting on the line and had sounded the horn and applied his emergency brakes. But the train was travelling at 100mph and took more than three quarters of a mile to stop.

“It all happened in a split second — I didn’t have time to react,” he told the coroner.

Mr Spong used his radio to call the police. PC Christopher Poxon was first to arrive at the scene, at 8.45pm on February 18. He said: “Everyone was distressed and hysterical. Karla was screaming, ‘I killed him, it’s my fault, I did it’.”

She was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and was taken to Hatfield police station for questioning but was released without charge.

Edward Thomas, the coroner, told her: “I think you feel responsible for what happened. You told the police, ‘I killed him’.”

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Thomas described Mr Youngs, from Hatfield, as a “very happy man who was close to his brother”. He had worked as a baker for six years and was hoping to start his own business.

Addressing Luke’s friends and family, Mr Thomas said: “The memory of this will affect all of you for the rest of your lives. Luke was clearly someone who was cherished and I cannot imagine how awful this must be.”

Mr Thomas added: “Everyone should use the footbridge, even if it means you are going to miss your train. Those of you who went on to the tracks that night should think carefully about your actions. All of you had done it before but it is a very dangerous place, with trains that cannot stop.

“I am sure that all of you who went across had had too much drink. When we have too much to drink it gives us a false sense of security and we no longer act sensibly.”

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