Mother Of Tulsa Boy Killed By Train: He Died Trying To Catch School Bus

The mother of a 12-year-old boy killed by a train Thursday morning says her son died trying to catch the school bus. 

03/08/2012 Related Story: Boy Dies After Being Hit By Train In North Tulsa

"His brothers and sisters are mad because he's gone...it shouldn't have happened," said Gina Brown.

Gina Brown can hardly believe the tragic twist her life has taken. Her 12-year old son, Richard, died Thursday morning just a few hours after being struck by a train.

"My son was killed this morning and the school hasn't called me or nothing. They've said nothing to me and they could have fixed it at the beginning of the year," Brown said.

Brown is angry because her son was walking to a school bus stop. He was with his 13-year-old brother and tried to cross the railroad tracks near the 2000 block of North Xanthus.

His brother had already crossed, but Brown slipped and could not get out of the way of the oncoming train. Officials with Operation Lifesaver say it's impossible for trains to stop quickly.

"An engineer cannot swerve, they're committed to two pieces of rails," said Sherry Soliz with Operation Lifesaver.

Tulsa Public Schools released a statement saying they are "greatly saddened" by Richard Browns death.

Brown was a student at McLain Junior High, but the district says he was walking to a bus stop near KIPP Academy, north of the railroad tracks, even though that's not his designated stop. Instead, he's supposed catch the bus at Woodrow Place and North Harvard, the opposite direction.

"We couldn't find it, we didn't know where it was at," Brown said.

Brown says a lot of kids in her neighborhood go to the other bus stop. You can see a well-worn path that leads directly to train tracks. Tulsa Police say the kids go under Highway 75 through a concrete culvert.

Brown says the stop on Harvard is too far away for her neighborhood and hopes TPS makes some changes.

"But I want them to fix it where they can come and go and get on the bus and go to school, because if not, my son died for nothing," Brown said.

Detectives will be looking at the train's recording device; it's very similar to an airplane's black box. It documents how fast the train was going as well as some other data. But they say right now they have nothing to indicate the engineer was doing anything wrong.