Amtrak train kills high school student

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Sep 27, 2007 | by Matt O'Brien

HAYWARD -- A student at Tennyson High School was struck and killed by an Amtrak train Wednesday morning.

The 16-year-old boy, whose identity was not being released, was crossing the tracks at 7:59 a.m. near Huntwood Avenue and Shepherd Avenue, just outside the high school, said Hayward Police Lt. Reid Lindblom.

Lindblom said investigators have talked to some of the student's friends and "it looks like the high school kid was trying to beat the train."

School remained in session as investigators called in the coroner's office and representatives from Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the tracks.

The passenger train was headed south from Oakland. A chain-link fence separates the tracks from the sports fields behind the high school, but no fence separates the tracks from Huntwood Avenue.

District administrators and grief counselors were called to the school to provide support for staff and students, Superintendent Dale Vigil said.

At about 10 a.m., four police officers carried the boy's body in a blue tarp across the tracks to a coroner's van on Huntwood.

Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said the Capitol Corridor train involved in the accident was delayed for about two hours. It was undetermined how fast the train was traveling, but the maximum speed allowed for trains passing through the area is 79 mph, according to Graham.

Ninety-eight passengers were aboard the train, and none was injured, she reported.

The accident occurred a few hundred yards from a pedestrian crossing, Graham said. The area is known for train deaths.

Vicente Vaca, who lives in the neighborhood, said he arrived at the scene just minutes after the accident.

"All the kids pass this way to school," said Vaca, whose 14-year- old son is a student at Tennyson. "They need to make the fence higher."

Aside from climbing the fence, pedestrians can also pass through a hole nearby, where the fence is rolled back from the point where it runs into a subdivision soundwall.

Vaca said every morning, he drops his son off a few blocks north at a pedestrian crossing that has a warning signal and gates.

On Wednesday, flowers still lay at that crossing in memory of 14- year-old Celedonia Castro, who was hit and killed by an Amtrak train in February 2005.

The Castro family filed a lawsuit against thedistrict, claiming that a lack of supervision by school officials at the Huntwood gate led to Celedonia's death. The family accepted a financial settlement of $200,000 from the district this year.

Also in 2005, investigators think Jake Henry, 13, committed suicide by standing on the tracks along Huntwood at West Tennyson Road. His mother told The Daily Review at the time that he was being treated for depression.

In May 2006, Enoel Ramos Cortez, 42, died when he was run over while lying on the tracks in the same area. Police said it wasn't clear whether he had fallen or was on the tracks for some other reason.

Most recently, in April , Miguel Castro Jr., 15, was hit and killed by an Amtrak train near Harder Road and Huntwood. Miguel, who was not a Tennyson High student, was walking on the tracks and apparently stopped and waited for the train to arrive, according to police reports.

Meanwhile, students and parents have begun a petition urging the Hayward Unified School District to create alternate safe routes from the back of the school, or to block off the back entrance entirely to avoid future incidents.

"We need to get a bridge or make a little overpass to just make it safer," said student Pablo Oliva, who is rallying student support for the petition.

Maribel Heredia, a parent who has chided the district regarding health and safety conditions at its facilities, is also pushing the petition.

"How many more lives need to be lost before they do something about this?" she asked.

The situation is not being taken lightly by the district and will be looked into, Vigil said.

"It's always a tragic event when you lose a student," he said. "We will study the incident and get back together with other agencies to see what we need to do."

Carole Lopez, administrative services director, said the district recently met with city officials to discuss the back entrance of the campus.

"With our decision to have closed campuses for our students, the gate entrances to school sites are now closed during school hours," she said.

Assemblies are also held at school sites near railroad crossings, Lopez said, warning students of the hazards of being around the tracks.

In addition to the assemblies, school officials said parent and student handbooks are mailed to every student household before the beginning of a school year. A section on train safety is detailed in the handbook, outlining the schedules of passenger trains that travel past school campuses.

"Students should cross the tracks at established public crossings and should never walk on or along the tracks," the handbook states. "Students should never attempt to 'beat the train' across the tracks or cross the tracks once the warning signals have sounded."