Teen Killed By Train Was About to Graduate From San Leandro High School in June

An 18-year-old high school senior set to graduate in June was struck and killed Monday evening by an Amtrak train as it ran along the tracks near her San Leandro home.
 
An assistant principal at San Leandro High School recalled Brittney Silva as a high-energy student who worked hard to earn good grades and who was planning on attending college after graduation.
 
"She was very full of life, energetic, and involved in theater -- usually behind the scenes due to stage fright. But this year she actually got up on stage and acted in her first performance, 'The Crucible,'" assistant principal Elisa Alvarez said.
 
Alvarez said the school's theater teacher, John Sheridan, was the one who saw Brittney's acting potential and encouraged her to "go for it." Alvarez said Brittney had been accepted to University of California at Santa Cruz, Humboldt State University, and California State University East Bay.

She was already enrolled at Chabot College and planned on transferring to one of the four-year universities and hoped to attend medical school.

San Leandro police said Brittney's body was found 50 yards south of the intersection of Hesperian Boulevard and Springlake Drive after being struck at about 5:55 p.m.

[Related article: Officials ID 18-Year-Old Wearing Headphones Who Was Struck, Killed By Train in…]
 
Witnesses told police that Brittney was wearing earbuds, or may have been talking on her cellphone, and didn't hear the train or the screams of witnesses who saw the train approaching as she walked southbound along the east sidewalk of Hesperian Boulevard. Alvarez said the high school has a policy of no earbuds or headphones allowed on campus.
 
"One of our rules at the high school is no headphones. I'm always telling students to listen and observe the world going on around them," Alvarez said.
 
A clerk at the high school said grief counselors are on campus this week to meet with students. Arrangements have not yet been for a memorial service, Alvarez said.

—By Bay City News