Mindy Doster, a 17-year-old Mountain View High School student who was struck by a freight train and killed last week, is believed to have been hit by the overhang of the lead locomotive, the area of the massive machines that extends two to three feet outside the tracks, a BNSF Railway official said Tuesday.
When the westbound train’s engineer first saw Mindy about 5 p.m. on Sept. 30, she was not on the tracks or between the rails, said Gus Melonas, the railway spokesman. The engineer told railway police she was just off the tracks to his left, on the south side of the tracks, but close enough to be hit.
“Depending on the equipment, you can have two and a half to three feet of overhang in some cases,” Melonas said.
In addition, he said, if something on the train happens to come loose, such as a band used to secure a load, the danger zone for nearby pedestrians can extend even farther outside the rails.
BNSF Railway police, who are leading the investigation, as of Tuesday had not said whether Mindy was listening to the headphones or cell phone that were found near her body, which could have limited her ability to hear the fast-approaching train with 70 freight cars.
Mindy had been walking from her grandparents’ home on Southeast Evergreen Highway near 164th Avenue in Fisher’s Landing to her home near Southeast Mill Plain and 104th Avenue, a family member said.
She was hit along the tracks running south of the highway near 115th Court, about a fifth-mile west of the Interstate 205 Bridge. The train was westbound at 55 mph, about 80 feet per second, at the speed limit for freight trains there. The engineer, who sounded the horn and activated the emergency brakes, managed to stop the train in a half-mile. The locomotives blocked a private crossing at the base of Ellsworth Road. The engineer was badly traumatized by the accident, Melonas said.
There have been many reports through the years of people who didn’t hear approaching trains — even though engineers were sounding their horns — possibly due to the trains’ speed and winds, geography and other factors that can affect the acoustics in an area. Several such incidents have been reported in the Columbia Gorge.
It’s also possible for a pedestrian’s foot and leg to be clamped between rails when rails are switched over to allow a train to move to another set of tracks, Melonas said.
Railway officials for many years have cautioned folks to keep well away from the tracks. On the main line where Mindy was hit, about 35 trains pass daily.
The area along the tracks belongs to the railway and those who venture near tracks in unauthorized areas are considered trespassers.
