Kent teen who died apparently didn't hear sound of oncoming train

Angellina Rodriguez was walking into town to have her nails done on her day off, chatting away on her cellphone, when she attempted to cross the railroad tracks near the apartment she shared with her sister.

She'd used the same path — which is not in a marked crossing zone — dozens of times before without incident, according to her friends. But the 17-year-old wasn't so fortunate on Monday.

Rodriguez was apparently cutting across the tracks about 200 feet north of a marked crossing on James Street in Kent when she was struck from behind and killed by an Amtrak train bound for Portland.

Police said it appears that Rodriguez was engrossed in her phone conversation and failed to hear the approaching train or its whistle. She lived neared the tracks, and police suspect she may have become used to the noise.

Rodriguez, the youngest child of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, was the happiest she'd been in years, according to 17-year-old Erica Torres, the daughter of Rodriguez's godparents.

She'd recently gotten a good job at a SeaTac insurance office, was working on getting her GED and was straightening out her priorities, her friends said.

She had a new love interest and was optimistic about her future, said her friend Evelyn Prieto. Prieto and Torres said about 40 of Rodriguez's friends gathered on Monday night near the tracks where she died.

"She was a good girl and a good friend," said Torres. "You could always rely on her."

Just before noon on Tuesday, as Torres and Prieto stood near the tracks where a few roses and other flowers had been scattered, an Amtrak train came around a bend and sped by. Both young women put their hands over their mouths as it passed.

"It's so fast," Torres said.

"She didn't hear it," said Prieto, 19. "She was having a deep conversation."

"And her sister said she was carrying an umbrella," Torres said.

According to Kent police spokesman Paul Peterson, people who live near a railroad can soon become immune to the sounds of the train.

"After a while that noise just doesn't exist," he said.

"There was one witness who saw what was about to happen and was honking his horn trying to get her to look up, but she didn't," Peterson said.

Gus Melonas, a spokesman for BNSF Railway, said the girl's death was the fifth fatality on Washington state rails this year involving a person who was not at a marked railroad crossing.

He said that BNSF has more than 1,500 miles of rail line in the state, and the majority of fatal accidents in the past decade have occurred between Bellingham and Tacoma.

Melonas said that's because of the heavy population in the area, the amount of nearby recreational areas and the high number of trains using that stretch of rail.

"The first thing a railroad employee learns is to expect movement of a train on any track at any time in any direction," Melonas said, "and that's a message that we'd like to get out to the public as well."

Torres said a memorial service for Rodriguez is planned for 7 p.m. Friday at the Centro Familiar Cristiano at 9834 17th Ave. S.W. in White Center.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com