10-25-07
Imagination got the better of three boys, who snuck past their grandmother’s watchful eye to set out on a search for dinosaur bones.  But it was a search that would turn deadly, for one of them.

Five-year old Kevin Bradford, his cousin, also five, and Kevins seven-year-old brother set out on the search, which brought them to a set of train tracks near the house. While crossing the tracks, little Kevin and his friends heard a train approaching. But Kevin apparently tripped and fell, after catching his foot in the tracks. It’s unsure whether he got stuck in the tracks or if he simply panicked and froze up, but he was rendered unable to move as the locomotive approached.

The accident occurred in Watuga, a town in North Texas. Workers aboard the Union Pacific train spotted the boys on the tracks, and applied the brakes, according to Union Pacific spokesman Joe Arbona.  They weren’t able to stop in time. The trains struck Kevin on the tracks, killing the 5-year-old. Watauga Police Chief Rande Benjamin said the death was ruled an accident, and that no charges would be filed.