An assistant fire chief who responded to a fatal collision between a car and an Amtrak train near Rowe and the mother of the 16-year-old driver who died in the Saturday crash say they do not think he was trying to beat the train across the tracks.

"He was not racing the train," Maida Henderson, mother of Galen Stoller, said during a brief interview Monday.

Stoller was returning from the Santa Fe area, where he had visited his grandmother, when he entered a blind railroad crossing that has vexed neighbors for years, said assistant Rowe fire chief Shelley Oram. She disagreed with a theory state police are investigating that he might have tried to outrun the train across the tracks.

"There is no way — there is a sharp curve coming from the direction he was coming from — you could not see a train coming from the opposite direction," Oram said.

State police spokesman Lt. Rick Anglada said investigators questioned whether Stoller tried to outrun the train after they talked with railroad personnel who were aboard the train.

"That was based on the conductor's statement. That's what he thought," Anglada said.

The crossing where Stoller died is the only road into a rural area on the slopes of Rowe Mesa where dozens of homes have been built in the past 10 years, Oram said. Close calls at the dog-legged intersection are common, she said.

"I myself have almost been in the same situation at those tracks. I would invite anyone to come out and take a look at the scene. This could have happened to anyone," Oram said.

Stoller and the train approached the crossing from opposite directions. In the direction Stoller was driving, the Rowe frontage road turns to the left before it crosses the tracks, then turns back to the right to continue along the other side of the tracks as Wildflower Lane.

A state police statement earlier placed the accident at Plaza del Ortiz Road, which is located about a mile south, between Rowe and the Wildflower Lane crossing.

Trees near the sharp turn obscure the view of an oncoming train until a driver has rounded the corner, Oram said. She has not yet learned who owns the property, but said neighbors have discussed cutting down the trees in the wake of Saturday's accident.

Oram acknowledged a stop sign at the crossing offers drivers an opportunity to check for trains before they enter the tracks. But Oram said she has sometimes nearly missed seeing a train at the stop sign when she had music playing loudly and didn't hear a train.

Oram said neighbors have also discussed placing warning signs on either side of the crossing, to alert drivers to possible trains before they round the curve at the tracks.

Stoller was a Desert Academy class of 2009 student and an aspiring actor who held leading roles in Eldorado Children's Theatre and Teen Players productions. Desert Academy students are planning a memorial at the Santa Fe school Wednesday.

Stoller's father, Dr. Kenneth Stoller of Santa Fe, is a renowned proponent of hyperbaric medicine, which uses oxygen therapy to treat a variety of ailments.

Contact David Collins at 986-3064 or dcollins@sfnewmexican.com.