(Houston television station KTRK posted the following story by Jeff Ehling on its website on September 15.)
HOUSTON — Some students were forced to crawl underneath a train in order to get to school, and the trains are apparently an ongoing problem. This latest incident happened near McReynolds Middle School in east Houston.
To get to McReynolds Middle School, schools have to cross a set of railroad tracks. They say normally it’s not a problem, but on Friday there was a train that was actually parked on the tracks at Zindler and Market for several hours.
Usually it doesn’t take long for most students to get to and from McReynolds Middle School. After all, the school is across the railroad tracks from an apartment complex.
But on Friday that quick trip took a whole lot longer. Seventh grader Kervin Guevara told Eyewitness News it took nearly two hours, instead of the usual five minutes.
In order to get to school, dozens of kids went under the railcars of a train that was stopped for most of the morning. Others waited up to two hours for school officials to pick them up and take them around the railcar roadblock.
“Then the police stopped us here, and then we signed our names to a paper. Then the principal of the school came over here and took us to school,” recalled Kervin.
The track is owned by Union Pacific. Officials with the company tell us train crews must, by federal law, stop after 12 hours. Most of the time when a train stops it does not block a street, but on Friday it did.
Parents of students at McReynolds say the trains often cause trouble at this intersection.
Mother Julia Lewis said, “Some of the children, they’re late to class. And some times a lot of them are late coming home. The teachers would have to literally leave the classroom to come on the other side of the railroad track to pick the children up and bring them to school, and it’s been on ongoing situation.”
School officials say this has been a problem in the past as well. Fortunately no children have been hurt because of a train.
School officials also say they offer train crossing safety instruction to students at the beginning of every school year.