(The following appeared on the Seattle Times website on May 7.)
SEATTLE — Police say a man struck and killed by an Amtrak train at Auburn was talking on a cell phone and apparently did not hear the horn.
Police say the train was traveling northbound at about 80 mph Wednesday and sounded its horn and applied the emergency brake but could not avoid hitting the man. Gus Melonas, a spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe, says the victim was 50 years old and from Renton.
A spokeswoman for Valley Regional Fire Authority, Kimberly McDonald, says emergency responders who answered a call shortly after noon found the man dead at the scene near the Emerald Downs race track.