In brief: Amtrak train strikes, kills man on bridge
WENATCHEE – A 71-year-old Cashmere, Wash., man was killed Monday morning when he was struck by a westbound Amtrak passenger train on a railroad bridge crossing the Wenatchee River.
Chelan County Sheriff’s Chief of Operations John Wisemore said the man was walking on the train tracks near the center of the train trestle below Stine Hill when he was struck just after 6 a.m. The train was going about 40 mph.
The conductor told investigators that he saw a man walk onto the center of the tracks, Wisemore said.
The conductor sounded the train horn and activated emergency stopping procedures. The conductor said the man looked back at the train at least a couple of times before being struck. Wisemore said investigators are still trying to determine why the man was on the tracks.
The Sheriff’s Office is withholding the man’s name, pending notification of next of kin. His car was parked nearby in a state Department of Fish and Wildlife public fishing site off Stine Hill Road.
The train full of passengers was stopped on the bridge for about two hours before it continued west to Seattle.
Cusick man’s body found near lake
A Cusick, Wash., man who had been missing since Friday was found dead on Sunday, the victim of an apparent 40-foot fall.
The body of Ray Hester, 48, was found near Davis Lake in Pend Oreille County, the county sheriff’s office reported. An investigation revealed that Hester died after falling about 40 feet from a rock outcropping overlooking the lake. There are no indications of foul play, a news release from the Sheriff’s Office said.
Hester had last been seen by a relative around 1 a.m. Friday, and his vehicle had been found Saturday on state Highway 211 near Davis Lake.
Foundry fire put out by sprinkler system
Emergency sprinklers extinguished a small fire Monday in a chemical storage area of Spokane Industries, a steel foundry located at the industrial park in Spokane Valley, authorities said.
No injuries were reported in the 3:52 p.m. fire, but firefighters who were exposed to a chemical used in the molding process were decontaminated by hazardous materials crews as a precaution, said Spokane Valley Assistant Fire Marshal Bill Clifford.
Traffic in the area was restricted for about three hours as emergency crews worked the scene. The cause of the fire remained under investigation Monday night.
Six-month-old baby killed in I-82 crash
YAKIMA – The Washington State Patrol says a 6-month-old baby was killed in a crash Sunday on I-82 south of Ellensburg.
The baby was in a car driven by a 23-year-old man who slowed down to avoid a cooler, which had fallen off another vehicle onto the roadway.
The slowing car was hit by a pickup truck, killing the baby and injuring a 24-year-old woman. Three people in the pickup truck had minor injuries.
Coal train derails east of Pasco
PASCO – A railroad spokesman said about 30 cars of a 125-car coal train bound from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin to British Columbia have derailed along a Columbia River Gorge route east of Pasco, blocking a main rail line.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman Gus Melonas said no injuries were reported in the Monday evening derailment.
He said the majority of the derailed cars ended up on their sides; an undetermined amount of coal spilled. Melonas said no environmental threat was reported.
Railroad officials were on site, and the cause of the derailment is under investigation.
Melonas said more than 30 trains use that track daily. BNSF said it hopes to reopen the rail line as soon as today.
Officials suspend 10 timber sales
PORTLAND – Oregon officials have suspended 10 recent and upcoming timber sales on about 800 acres of state land as they prepare for a legal fight with conservation groups over a rare seabird.
The question in that battle is whether the state’s logging goals in the coastal Elliott, Tillamook and Clatsop state forests illegally harm the habitat of the threatened marbled murrelet, which is protected under the Endangered Species Act. The bird lays its eggs on the large, mossy branches of mature and old-growth trees.
Oregon Forestry Department spokesman Kevin Weeks said the state took the unprecedented action so officials who would normally work on timber sales could focus on preparing for the federal court fight in Portland.
In May, three environmental groups sued Gov. John Kitzhaber and Oregon forestry agencies in an effort to halt logging in areas where the bird nests. The bird’s numbers are declining.