SURREY (NEWS1130) – Transit Police are warning passengers not to climb on handrails, with a man in critical condition after a fall at Surrey’s Gateway SkyTrain station.

Anne Drennan with the force says it happened Sunday night as the 31-year-old man sat on an escalator handrail.

Sitting sideways on the rail with his feet hanging over the moving stairs and his back against a wall.

“He slid nearly one-third of the way down. When the wall suddenly came to an end and with nothing to lean again, he lost his balance and fell head first approximately 30 feet to the concrete below.”

Witnesses who saw the man on the SkyTrain prior to the incident say he had been behaving oddly. Drennan adds the man was probably drunk.

No one saw the actual fall but several people in the area heard the impact and called police.

The man was transported to Royal Columbian Hospital suffering from several injuries including severe head trauma, and is still in critical condition.

Anybody with any information concerning this incident is asked to call Transit Police at 604-515-8300.