Teen talking on cellphone killed by train while walking across track in Kent

A 17-year-old girl was killed by a train this morning in Kent as she crossed the track while talking on her cellphone.

According to police, witnesses said the girl was walking across the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway near First Avenue and Cole Street while talking on her cellphone when she was hit about 11:44 a.m. by a southbound Amtrak train and killed.

Police said that a police chaplain is en route to notify the girl's family and that her name will not be released until then.

Kent police spokesman Paul Peterson said the girl was not at a marked crossing when she was struck.

"This appears to be a very bad accident," he said.

The accident occurred along a stretch of the rail line about 200 yards north of a marked railroad crossing on James Street. The area is surrounded by businesses and apartments, Peterson said.

Gus Melonas, a spokesman for BNSF Railway, said rail traffic was shut down until shortly before 1 p.m. He said the girl's death was the fifth fatality on Washington state rails this year involving people who were not at marked railroad crossings.