Renton man killed by train while on phone

It's dangerous to talk on a cellphone when you're anywhere near railroad tracks.

That sounds obvious, but railroad officials say it bears repeating after a man was struck and killed by a train Wednesday while talking on a cellphone, the second such accident in the region in the past 2-½ weeks.

Police and railroad officials said the 50-year-old Renton man was walking on tracks in Auburn near Emerald Downs when he was struck by a northbound Amtrak train around noon.

Angellina Rodriguez, 17, who also was using a cellphone, was killed April 21 by a southbound Amtrak train while attempting to cross the tracks in Kent.

Neither was in a marked crossing area, according to Gus Melonas of BNSF Railway.

"It seems pretty obvious to me," said Asante Kufuor, an Amtrak representative. "Maybe you should be more careful and you shouldn't walk on the train tracks while using your cellphone."

Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said there have been several accidents in the last few months in which people have been injured or killed by a train while using a cellphone.

Auburn police Sgt. Scott Near said the man killed Wednesday, whose name has not been released, was struck while walking north on the tracks in the 1400 block of C Street Northwest. He said the train was traveling north, at an estimated 80 mph, when it tried to slow down. The conductor sounded the horn and applied the emergency brakes, but "there was nothing he could do," Near said.

According to news reports, a man in Berkeley, Calif., was struck and killed in November while talking on a phone and trying to cross two sets of parallel tracks. Witnesses told police the man stood by the tracks and waited for one train to cross, then immediately stepped out onto the tracks and was struck by a second train that was passing in the opposite direction.

In December, a 16-year-old boy from San Leandro, Calif., was killed when he went around a crossing gate and stepped into the path of a train while absorbed in a cellphone conversation.

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

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.