Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson was last night savaged by mental-health charities for reiterating his complaint that people who commit suicide by throwing themselves under trains are "selfish".

The 51-year-old, who was forced to apologise earlier in the week when 21,000 people complained after he said in a televised broadcast that striking workers should be shot in front of their familes, was embroiled in further controversy for saying that those who commit suicide on railway lines cause "immense" disruption for commuters.

Clarkson, who first criticised train suicides during the same One Show appearance in which he said strikers should be shot, wrote in his tabloid newspaper column yesterday: "I have the deepest sympathy for anyone whose life is so mangled and messed up they believe death's icy embrace will be better. However, every year around 200 people decide the best way to go is by hurling themselves in front of a speeding train. In some ways they are right. This method has a 90% success rate and it's extremely quick.

"However, it is a very selfish way to go because the disruption it causes is immense. And think what it's like for the poor train driver who sees you lying on the line and can do absolutely nothing to avoid a collision." Later in the article the presenter referred to those who choose to jump in front of trains as "Johnny Suicide" and argued that following a death, trains should carry on their journeys as soon as possible.

He added: "The train cannot be removed nor the line re-opened until all the victim's body has been recovered. And sometimes the head can be half a mile away from the feet.

"Change the driver, pick up the big bits of what's left of the victim, get the train moving as quickly as possible and let foxy woxy and the birds nibble away at the smaller, gooey parts that are far away or hard to find."

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental-health charity Sane, said: "We are absolutely appalled that Jeremy Clarkson should accuse people who throw themselves on railway lines of being 'selfish'. He has obviously never experienced the agony of mind which drives people to such desperate acts - The selfish person is the one who rates being late by minutes or hours as more important than a person losing their lives forever."

Catherine Johnstone, Samaritans' chief executive, said: "The insensitivity of Jeremy Clarkson's comments about people who die by suicide on the railways truly beggars belief. While purporting to express sympathy for people who die this way, his remarks about their bodies constitute gross intrusion into the grief and shock of bereaved families and friends.

Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, described the comments as "extraordinarily tasteless", especially in the wake of the death of footballer Gary Speed.

A BBC spokesman said the Corporation had no comment to make about Clarkson's comments.