The most dangerous thing I did near tracks when I was young was to put pennies on the rail well before a train would come.
Ha! Me too, at least until my brother, who was attending MSU in East Lansing, MI at the time, got arrested, (charges later dropped) for doing the same, and "defacing US currency".
While MOST of the time I agree with the Darwin-comments, when it involves teenagers, it is hard to swallow.
And yes, the crew and parents suffer the most. I was in cab, (not at throttle) when a motorcyclist decided to try and beat the train. He lost, INSTANTLY.
The sad fact is, "teenagers will be teenagers" and sometimes with deadly results. Bet his friends will be rail-safety concious for the rest of their lives, having experienced that horror.