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(The following story by Kathy Mulady And Casey McNerthney appeared on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer website on May 9.)

AUBURN, Wash. — A man talking on a cell phone while walking Wednesday on railroad tracks was hit by a train and killed. He was the second person in the area to be killed by a train while talking on a cell phone in the past two weeks.

Auburn Police spokesman Scott Near said the man killed just after noon was walking on the tracks between the 1200 and 1400 blocks of C Street Northwest, where the rails parallel the street and there are no signs or crossings.

Security personnel at Emerald Downs racetrack said the man was a 49-year-old groom at the track, and co-workers there said he had been hired about two months ago after working with horses in Texas.

Witnesses, including the train conductor, saw the man talking on the phone. The engineer sounded the horn, but the man apparently didn’t hear it. The train was going about 80 mph and couldn’t stop in time to avoid hitting the man. The Amtrak Cascades train was heading north from Eugene, Ore., to Seattle.

The accident is under investigation, but Near said the death appears to be accidental and not a suicide.

On April 21, Angellina Rodriguez, 17, of Kent, was killed by a train on the same main railroad line. Witnesses told police that they saw Rodriguez talking on the phone as she was walking across railroad tracks about 200 yards north of East James Street in Kent.

Gus Melonas, a spokesman for BNSF Railway, which owns the track, said about 50 trains — passenger, freight and commuter — pass through the rail corridor between Kent and Auburn every 24 hours.

Amber Morris, a receptionist at the Val-U Inn Motel next to the tracks where the man was hit, said she got to work just as the medical examiner arrived.

Morris said that a lot of homeless people as well as school kids walk along the track as a guide to getting around the area and that it’s not uncommon to see several people walking along or crossing the track each day. People also cross the tracks to get to Emerald Downs from the motel.

“It amazes me that somebody could not hear the train … but those trains come really fast,” Morris said.

Train safety advocates say the distraction of texting or talking on cell phones along railroad tracks is becoming an increasing problem.

Last year, 17 people were killed by trains in Washington, according to statistics from the Federal Railroad Administration. So far this year, eight people have been killed.

Marmie Edwards, a spokeswoman for Operation Lifesaver, a rail safety education organization, said the distraction of using cell phones near train tracks is a growing concern. The group has just finished a new safety film for middle school students that warns about the danger of talking or texting on cell phones near tracks.

“We are seeing more of it,” she said. “People are engrossed in what they are doing, maybe looking down to text and not seeing the train, not looking up. Or maybe they don’t hear the horn.”

Edwards said that just being close to the rails is dangerous, because trains have about a 3-foot overhang on the side. The organization, along with BNSF, advise people to just stay away from the tracks.

The rails are on private property, and walking on them is trespassing.

Bob Boston, Washington state coordinator for Operation Lifesaver, said people who are hit by trains but survive often say they thought the train was on the other track. Others say they thought it was approaching much slower than the 60 to 80 mph trains typically travel.

“It is a big optical illusion,” said Boston.

Modern trains are also much quieter than trains of the past. Tracks are welded rather than bolted, so there is no clackety-clack sound, and quiet engines often push the trains from the back.

“They are deadly quiet,” Boston said.

It takes a train traveling 55 mph about a mile to stop.

“Trains run on any track, in any direction, at any time,” Boston said.

Railway suicides have also increased in recent years in some parts of the country, said railroad officials.

The accidents take a toll on the train crew, including the engineer and the conductor.

“It is amazing some of the stories you hear from engineers, and, of course, it is trauma to them,” said Boston. “Some never go back to running trains, it affects them so badly.”

Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said train crews are offered counseling after such accidents and are allowed to immediately leave their duties.

The news of Wednesday’s fatality brought shock to those who knew the victim at Emerald Downs.

His employer, Steve Bullock, said the groom was on his way to wire money to his family in Mexico.

He was remembered as a dedicated employee who worked seven days a week and sometimes late at night running the horses.

“All he talked about were his babies; he took care of the young horses and he wanted them to be good,” Bullock said.