Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 29, 1994                   TAG: 9408300054
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BOY STRUCK BY TRAIN DIES OF INJURIES

But there are still too many questions running through his mind about why his older brother, Ken Johnson, had to die.

"I guess that's how life goes sometimes, but he just wouldn't go and lay down on the tracks. That's not my brother."

Ken Johnson, 17, died at 12:20 Sunday morning of injuries suffered Friday night when a train struck him, a Roanoke Memorial Hospital nursing supervisor said.

One of the crew members on the eastbound Norfolk Southern train did see a man with his legs over the tracks, railroad spokesman Bob Auman said Sunday evening, but the train could not stop in time.

Most of his neighbors in Hale Trailer Park on U.S. 460 in Elliston knew Johnson by the name Boo - a nickname his older sister had given him when he was a child. They described him as tall and good-looking, with blond hair and blue eyes. The third child in a family of four, Johnson was quiet - "a good kid."

His family said he never went near the railroad tracks alone.

"Boo didn't like the tracks. If someone told him to take the shortcut that followed the tracks, he'd say, 'No, pick me up here in the [trailer] park,'" Timmy Johnson said.

Boo Johnson had been seen Friday night in the neighborhood, less than an hour before the accident. But no one saw him walk toward the tracks.

Boo's father, Tim, said his family won't reach any conclusions until the results of the autopsy, which will be conducted today(Monday).

The family said Norfolk Southern, which is handling the investigation, has not spoken to anyone in the trailer park.

"They just took some pictures from the top of the hill [Friday night] and said to call them if we hear anything," Timmy Johnson said.

"To my knowledge, we were not called in for the accident; only the rescue squad went out. If we had been called, we probably would have helped with the investigation," Sheriff Ken Phipps said.

Auman said he did not know the details of the investigation, or whether the Sheriff's Office had been called in to assist in the investigation.

Keywords:
FATALITY