Longview Teen Injured In Train Accident - KLTV.com - Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville |ETX News

Nursing a broken arm, broken collar bone and various bruises and cuts, 13 year old Kenneth Sheppard is lucky. Lucky that he is alive after having a close encounter with a train.

"He was real lucky to come through with as little injury as what he did" says his mother Jennifer Gill. His story begins yesterday on a stretch of railroad near Sabine street. He was on the way to a friends house, when he realized a train was coming.

"I couldn't run back cause I was on a bridge... I was thinking should I jump or just move out of the way" says Sheppard. Kenneth moved to the edge and turned sideways to try to let the train go by. If the train would have been a little wider, it would have run into him, but the engine only clipped a backpack he was wearing; knocking him 25 feet down into a creek.

Emergency crews rushed to get him out; and made the call to his parents. "I nearly had a heart attack and especially since they didn't give me any details the emergency room doctor calling saying my son had been in an accident involving a train" says Gill.

Now Kenneth now has the rest of his life to think about the split-second, life or death decision he made. And he will never look at trains quite the same way.

Bob Hallmark reporting.