Teen dies playing chicken with train

Austin Price was a sweet and caring 15-year-old boy, the type who was quick to pay compliments and always asking how others were faring, his friends said.

He was the kind of boy who liked to make people laugh, who would be late for class because he was picking up a friend.

In short, Austin Price was the type of boy who would have been comforting his friends and classmates at San Lorenzo High School on Friday - had it not been for him that they grieved.

The Hayward youth was struck and killed by a northbound Capitol Corridor train when he failed to leap out of its way in time while playing a game of chicken with two other boys on the tracks near his school about 6 p.m. Thursday, police said.

The two other teens weren't hurt, said Alameda County sheriff's Deputy April Luckett.

Many at the San Lorenzo school said the entire community walks near the train tracks, but students in particular hang around them often - and Principal Tovi Scruggs said that is a constant worry. Signs on the fence separating the tracks and the school warn students not to tread too close: "It's trespassing," they read. "It's dangerous. It isn't worth it."

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

Many boys play chicken

Boys at the school frequently played chicken with trains, according to Olympia Pereira, 16, a friend of Austin's since sixth grade. "They played all the time," she said. "It was just a game."

"People won't be by the tracks anymore," 16-year-old Tania Montes added softly. Tania said she had been good friends with Austin since fifth grade.

All day long Friday, a solemn air hung over the campus and its 1,500 students. Girls carried tissue boxes around campus, their eyes red and dazed. A large sign hung in the main courtyard reading, "Austin, we'll miss you." Teachers displayed photos of Austin, who was a sophomore.

The school held several moments of silence in Austin's honor, and grief counselors were on hand to offer support.

"He was a good person - one of those good people you come across every day," Olympia said. "He genuinely cared."

Olympia, Tania and a group of friends gathered on a bench at the school Friday, laughing quietly at their memories of Austin. They said he dressed as if he didn't care what people thought of him, but he was always shaking out the shoulder-length hair he had been growing out since last year, friends said.

Had Austin been there Friday, he would have been late for class, his friends said, because he would be swinging by Tania's home to walk with her to school. He'd be wearing a hat and sagging shorts and "telling people they were beautiful," said friend Tijara Francis, 15.

'Life is precious'

Tijara said Austin's sudden death made her look at her life a little differently.

"It makes me feel like I take life for granted, that I'm wasting time," she said. "I don't want to do that anymore."

Principal Scruggs echoed that sentiment as she walked back onto campus after speaking with Austin's family Friday.

"Life is precious," she said.