SEATTLE (AP) — A freight train struck and killed a woman Thursday on the tracks at Carkeek Park in Seattle.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman Gus Melonas says the crew blew the whistle and engaged emergency brakes, but the 63-car train could not stop in time. The crew said the woman was kneeling in the middle of the track.
A suspicious device with a fuse was found in the vicinity, so the Seattle police bomb squad responded. Spokesman Mark Jamison said it may have been a leftover firework from the Fourth of July, near the body by coincidence.
The train fatality is the fourth in the Seattle area since Aug. 5. Melonas says the number of railroad trespassing deaths increases in warm weather, as much of the line runs along Puget Sound.
