MARTINEZ -- On a day so blue with sadness that school officials called it one of the worst they could remember, students at Martinez Junior High School found a way to honor the bright spirit of an eighth-grade schoolmate killed Sunday by a train. 
 
 In memory of 14-year-old Jenna Betti, they wore pink. 
 
 "It was her favorite color," Rami Muth, the superintendent for the Martinez Unified School District, said Monday. "It's just something they wanted to do." 
 
 The tribute for Jenna came a day after authorities said she was struck by a train around 5 p.m. on BNSF Railway tracks just east of Old Orchard and Howe roads. Her identity was confirmed Monday by the Contra Costa Coroner's Office. 
 
 BNSF Railway spokeswoman Lena Kent said the train was made up of five locomotives with no freight cars. Jenna and another person were on the tracks when the train came around a corner. The train's conductor sounded a whistle, and the two moved off the tracks, she said. 
 
 "The girl went back onto the tracks," Kent said. "Why, we don't know yet." 
 
 Several witnesses and sources familiar with the initial investigation said Jenna may have been retrieving her phone. 
 
 The collision happened on tracks that were about a half-mile away from the nearest railroad crossing on Morello Avenue, and Kent said the two would have had to hike a distance to get to the tracks. It was not known immediately why Jenna and the other person were on the tracks, but Kent said the tracks are considered property of the railroad and that it was not legal for anyone to be there. 
 
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 On Monday, neighbors of Jenna's family mourned her loss, along with her classmates and teachers at Martinez Junior High School. 
 
 "The thing I can tell you about Jenna is that I always saw her in front of the house playing in the street with her sisters or with other kids," said Amanda Malmborg, who lives across the street from the family. "She always had a smile, and she was very kind to everybody." 
 
 Students at the middle school urged each other through social media to wear pink as news of the tragedy began to spread Sunday night. When classes began Monday, flags at the school were at half-staff and grief counselors were brought in to help students. A candlelight vigil for Jenna is slated for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the commons at her school. Students were informed of Jenna's death during a first-period announcement by Principal Jonathan Eagan. 
 
 "Quite frankly, it's just a shock to the whole school," Eagan said, adding that the turn of events is "an an awful, awful situation." 
 
 Eagan said many of the students learned of Jenna's death through Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets, and the hashtag #pinkforjenna had generated dozens of posts by Monday afternoon. 
 
 "Heaven really just received the most beautiful girl ever," one of the posts said. 
 
 Still, the school proceeded with the assumption that at least half the student body was unaware. 
 
 "One of the concerns is that probably half of our students don't have social media, so they were completely unaware when they arrived on campus," Eagan said. "We're doing everything we can to respect those students and their parents, and that's why we made an announcement. We'll get through this time the best we can." 
 
 Jenna was an emerging soccer star and one of the top players on her traveling club team, Eagan said. She also was a "vivacious girl, always smiling," he said. 
 
 It was a description seconded by others. Malmborg added: "She was just the sweetest all-American girl." 
 
 Contact Rick Hurd at 925-945-4789 and follow him at Twitter.com/3rdERH. ||||| Girl, 14, struck and killed by train in Martinez 
 
 Family members, friends and school officials are mourning the loss of a 14-year-old girl who was struck and killed by a train in Martinez when, according to her mother, she tried to retrieve a cell phone she had dropped on the tracks. 
 
 Jenna Betti was hit by an eastbound Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway freight train east of Old Orchard Road near Howe Road about 5 p.m. Sunday, authorities said. 
 
 Three crew members on board saw two people on the tracks, said railway spokeswoman Lena Kent. "Both individuals got off of the track," she said, "and for some unknown reason, one of the individuals came back on the track." 
 
 The girl was an eighth-grader at Martinez Junior High School, where classmates wore pink, her favorite color, in her memory on Monday. One of her two younger sisters attends the school, where flags were at half-staff. Jenna was also an accomplished soccer player. 
 
 "She was always laughing. If you would see her at the lunch table, sitting with her friends, she's laughing and smiling," said Principal Jonathan Eagan. "In class, she was a good student, but she also had a smile and was kind of the life of the party, in a very positive way, and she was also a phenomenal athlete." 
 
 Rami Muth, Martinez Unified School District superintendent, said that Jenna was a "beautiful, vibrant young lady" and that counselors were on hand Monday to help students. 
 
 In a message to friends on Facebook, Jenna's mother, Dena Betti, wrote that Jenna and her boyfriend were sitting on the tracks when the train approached. "Why they made such a horrible decision we'll never know," she wrote. 
 
 The two jumped out of the way, but "she dropped her phone and went back to retrieve it," Dena Betti wrote. "She didn't judge the approach, and the train creates a vacuum, we were told, and it sucks you in. We are beyond devastated. Thank you for all your love, support and prayers during this very difficult time." 
 
 A friend, 13-year-old Alyssa Bielecki, said Jenna was "very happy. She always smiled. I never saw her down. She made everything better. She always looked at the bright side of stuff. She was always there for everyone." 
 
 Jenna was most likely scared about getting in trouble for losing her phone, said Alyssa, who visited the scene where Jenna died. 
 
 Her brother, Stephen Bielecki, 20, said, "I can't really put myself in her shoes, but I think she wasn't really thinking, and didn't really think twice, and she just reacted and tried to get her phone as quick as she could." 
 
 He said many teenagers were drawn to train tracks to hang out or have conversations, possibly because "you hear stories, books, movies about people walking the train tracks. You see cool pictures of people on train tracks, so they get the idea from the mainstream, from the media. 
 
 "For me, myself, I feel like you should just be nowhere near the tracks."
– Yet another person has died after putting her phone's safety ahead of her own. Jenna Betti, 14, was killed by a freight train on Sunday when she tried to retrieve a phone she had dropped on the tracks in Martinez, Calif., reports the San Francisco Chronicle. She had been sitting on the tracks with her boyfriend when the train approached. A rep for the railway says the conductor sounded a whistle as the train rounded a corner, and the crew did see the pair exit the tracks, reports the Contra Costa Times. Then "one of the individuals came back on the track." "She didn't judge the approach, and the train creates a vacuum, we were told, and it sucks you in," the eighth-grader's mother says. "We are beyond devastated." Adds her brother, "I can't really put myself in her shoes, but I think she wasn't really thinking, and didn't really think twice, and she just reacted and tried to get her phone as quick as she could." Family members and friends have left flowers at a growing memorial beside the tracks, reports ABC 7. Earlier this year, two men died after trying to retrieve a phone dropped in the Chicago River, and last week, a Texas man died after going back into a burning house for his phone.