Boy Denies Daredevil Act Against Train

A 10-year-old Carlsbad boy who suffered only a broken arm when he was hit by an Amtrak locomotive denied Monday that he was “playing chicken” with the fast-moving passenger train.

“No, it wasn’t like that,” Alexander Gall said of news stories that depicted him tempting fate with the northbound San Diegan, which was going about 70 m.p.h. Gall talked by phone from his bed at Children’s Hospital.

Gall’s mother Lisa, 29, said she was surprised at some of the stories evolving from Sunday evening’s near-tragedy at a popular fishing spot on Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

“People are saying in the newspapers and on television that my son was imitating the movie ‘Stand by Me,’ where a group of boys play chicken with an oncoming train,” Gall said of the incident, in which the train caught a part of her son’s side, breaking his right arm. “It might have been my fault for always telling him to make sure he brings home all of his stuff.”

Alexander, two other boys and a 22-year-old man were returning from a fishing outing. Alexander took his skateboard along because the others were taking their bikes, and he needed something to keep up with them, he told his mother.

“They had just finished fishing and were on their way home,” Gall said. “He dropped his fishing pole and went back to pick it up, but it was caught in the tracks and, before he knew what was happening, the train was right on top of him and he barely managed to get out of the way, but was sucked in by the train and was partially hit.”

Alexander, a fifth-grade student at Pine School, is Gall’s only child and, according to her, has always been responsible and considerate.

“He was hurt by the stories that said he was playing chicken,” Lisa said. “When he first arrived, and I saw a little head in the back seat of a police car, I nearly lost it when they told me he was hit by a train.”

According to Lt. Don Lewis of the Carlsbad Police Department, the trestle where the boys were is a popular fishing spot, and there are no signs forbidding access to the lagoon.

“It’s been a little bit of an attraction and a problem,” Lewis said. “Santa Fe Railroad owns the property, and there are no signs against trespassing.”

Lewis also said the speed of trains is deceptive to some people.

Cheryl Ernst, director of elementary education for the Carlsbad Unified School District, said assemblies are held at all of the district’s schools, at which warnings about playing on railroad tracks are given.

“We have safety assemblies to tell the students what’s safe and what isn’t,” Ernst said.

Stephen Ahle, principal of Pine School, which has 350 students, said the school is planning to have another assembly, especially in light of Sunday’s accident.

“We want to warn the kids about fishing off the trestle. It needs to be discussed,” Ahle said. “I’ve heard of it (train accidents) happening from other kids in other schools but not in a long time.”

According to Dee DeTarsio, a spokeswoman at Children’s Hospital, Alexander is still receiving medication for pain but could be released today.

Upon reflecting on her son’s brush with death, Gall said: “He’s all I have in this world. Maybe he survived because he’s meant to do good things in this world.”