Every year it seems, and particularly in the summer when the evenings and the holidays are long, we carry stories of children who have come to harm through playing on industrial premises or railway lines. Today we almost had to report another of those tragic incidents.

If it hadn't been for the watchfulness of a lorry driver, who checked before he tipped his load of scrap metal into a skip, an eight-year-old girl could have joined the list of those killed or seriously injured because they chose the wrong sort of playground.

She is very, very fortunate that the driver was apparently aware that the firm had been having problems with children trespassing on its property and had acted cautiously. It has had to repair fences which have been broken down by youngsters, who have also ignored calls to stay away from a pond at the front of the premises.

There is a great temptation for children to go where they shouldn't. They want to explore. It's part of their adventurous nature. Ponds are magnets to them. So are building sites, factories, railway sidings and, indeed, skips. They simply can't see the potential dangers.

So it is up to adults to impress the risks on them. As the technical director of the firm involved in this latest near-miss rightly says, parents should discourage their children from breaking in and playing on that and similar sites. Far better that they take the advice of West Yorkshire Police and find a safe, designated recreation area to play on.