Monday morning, 15-year-old sophomore Sergio Rodriguez thought it was safe to run across the tracks that were between him and Milby High School. Whether he tripped, as some onlookers have reportedly said, or underestimated the speed of the oncoming Union Pacific train, the end result was a lethal collision and death.
By Thursday afternoon, while a private vigil was being held at the school, Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles called a press conference to explain what the district is doing to try to prevent something like this from happening again. A rail safety information program will be instituted; its mantra: Don’t race the train. Don’t crawl through a stalled train. Cross only at the designated crossing areas.
But other than the education program and support for the family and counseling for other students, the district will have to rely on the city of Houston, Union Pacific and perhaps the state legislature to be willing to upset the decades-long status quo that has schools and railroad tracks in uneasy adjacencies. It’s unknown if that would include or even could include a change in times when Union Pacific runs its trains, especially during student arrival and departure times.
Sergio’s parents have filed a lawsuit against Union Pacific and the train operator. In turn, Union Pacific has issued a statement expressing their sympathy to the family, but also pointing out that Sergio did not use a designated crossing area.
There’s a proposal to install a pedestrian bridge that would take students over the crossing and out of harm’s way. On Thursday Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he was going to issue an order to the Texas Department of Transportation to explore the possibility of a bridge by Milby. It’s estimated to cost $6.5 million. That’s just for one school.
“I will join forces with Mayor Whitmire, [Harris County] Judge Lina Hidalgo and the Houston police chief [Noe] Diaz to attempt to secure the needed resources at the nine most dangerous crossings in HISD. These rare the tracks that are close to our campuses and are unsafe for passage.
Besides Milby where 2,000 students are in attendance, those schools are: Waltrip High School, McReynolds Middle School, Forest Brook Middle School, Kashmere High School, Cook Elementary School, Burnett Elementary School, Tijerina Elementary School, and Roosevelt Elementary School.
“We have 118 schools [out of the district’s 274 total] that are close to railroad tracks or that at least are between a child’s home and the school. But there are nine that are the most severe.” Miles said. “While we can’t control every risk in an urban environment like Houston, we continue to look for ways to help our students stay safe on their way to and from our schools.
Besides a pedestrian bridge, other potential solutions might be a tunnel or a fence along the tracks.
“Tens of thousands of students walk to school at HISD every day and many of them have to cross active railroad tracks to do so,” Miles said. “The tragic loss this week is a heartbreaking reminder of all the things that we as a community need to do to make sure kids aren’t forced to jeopardize their safety to make it to and from school every day.”
Miles emphasized that safety — rather than on-time attendance — was the first priority of the school district. The same point was made by Alex Elizondo, Chief of Public Affairs and Communication at a Tuesday press conference. Both have insisted the high school’s principal Ruth Peña is not at fault; that the school has a long standing policy that students should wait for a train to go by and that they would not be recorded as tardy.
He called on principals to re-state and emphasize that students should never race the train. He added that students may be dismissed late if a train is blocking the route home.
Tuesday, Elizondo said hazardous route transportation would be provided for any students whose parents felt their children’s walk to school was unsafe. Miles fine-tuned that Thursday, saying this would be true for any elementary school students and would be determined on a case-by-case basis for middle and high schoolers, adding that often members of the latter two groups don’t want to ride the bus.
This is not a new policy, Miles said, but one that has been in place already. But perhaps anticipating an uptick in the number of requests, he said: “HISD will ask Union Pacific to offset the cost of this additional bus service when it is due to a rail crossing.”
He said the district and its police department would develop a rail safety campaign to provide information and remind students about the dangers. He said various departments will be involved in this effort.
He also said the location of rail lines would be part of any future HISD considerations about possible school sites.
“Sergio was a Milby High School student, a son, a brother, a football player, a wonderful child whose life ended far too soon,” Miles said.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
