A BNSF Railway freight train struck and killed a man on the tracks in Kent at about 5:19 a.m. Friday.
The train hit the man near the trestle over South 266th Street in south Kent, said Gus Melonas, BNSF spokesman, in a phone interview Friday. South 266th Street is just west of Central Avenue South, also known as 83rd Avenue South.
The northbound train was headed to Everett from Roosevelt in southeastern Washington with empty containers, Melonas said. It was approaching Kent and engineers saw a subject on the tracks. The crew blew the horn and applied the brakes but struck the man and killed him.
Kent Police and BNSF officials did not have any information about the man or why he was on the tracks. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office will investigate and release the man’s name pending notification of family.
“The train did not derail and the crew was not injured,” Melonas said. “We are investigating further.”
The accident closed the tracks for about two hours. Nearly 60 trains travel the tracks each day, Melonas said.
Railroad officials are looking into whether additional signage to stay off the tracks might be needed in the area.
“Trains run 24/7 so a train could be coming at anytime from any direction,” Melonas said.
Trains run between Roosevelt and Everett because Snohomish County sends much of its garbage to the large Roosevelt Regional Landfill in Klickitat County above the Columbia River Gorge.
Thirteen people were killed by trains across the state in 2016, according to the state Utilities and Transportation Commission. Five have been killed so far this year.
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