'I told my son to take care before he was killed'

London: The father of a public schoolboy electrocuted on a railway track as he celebrated the New Year told yesterday how he urged his son to be careful shortly before his death.

Sam Griffiths, 16, was killed when he tripped on the 750-volt live rail in front of horrified friends, less than an hour after a telephone conversation with his father.

It is thought the talented rugby player had been wandering on the tracks near Burgess Hill station, close to the Hurstpierpoint College, West Sussex, where he was studying for his A-levels. Ambulance crews attended the scene at 1.30am on New Year's Day after friends raised the alarm, but Sam could not be saved. Yesterday his father, Ian, a business journalist for The Guardian, told of the last time he spoke to his "devoted" son.

Griffiths, 54, of Chiswick, said: "There are no words to explain how I feel. People ask if there is anything they can do but the one thing I need they can't do: "bring Sam back".

"I spoke to him after 12.30am to say happy New Year and he was calm and relaxed. He said, 'I love you dad'. I said I loved him and told him to take care. Typically, he ignored what I'd said to him."

British Transport Police officers have been examining CCTV footage in a bid to piece together Sam's final moments. They say the death is not suspicious.

Griffiths said his son was "full of energy". He also told of the devastation of the teenager's sister, Kate, 13, and his mother, Griffiths' former wife, Christian Kerr. Griffiths said: "His sister feels really cheated by this. We all do. He will be looking down at us so upset at all the grief he has caused. That was not his plan. Sam was bright but I think he wanted to be a 40-year-old gap year student. He just enjoyed playing rugby and having a laugh."

"We never realised he had so many friends. His death has affected hundreds of people."

The teenager was a weekly boarder at the Hurstpierpoint College, where he had started in September after finishing his GCSEs at Brighton College. More than 1,000 of his friends have set up groups on a social networking website to call for a lasting memorial.