Austin Price, a 15-year-old sophomore at San Lorenzo High School in San Lorenzo, Calif., died Thursday playing a game of "chicken" with two friends on the train tracks near his school, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday. The northbound Amtrak train hit Price when he didn't move out of the way in time -- though his two companions weren't hurt.

Principal Tovi Scruggs said the "dangerous" train tracks were a popular hang out site for students.


"It's an ongoing concern," Scruggs said. "Tragedies don't happen frequently, but we know the tracks are not staying empty."

Prince's classmates told the Chronicle that boys at their school played "chicken" there "all the time."

"People won't be by the tracks anymore," one of Price's friends said.

“It’s very important that kids realize how dangerous the tracks are," Alameda County Deputy April Luckett told reporters, adding that parents need to "reiterate that to their children that they need to stay off the tracks."