Pickup drops from Aurora after crash

A pickup collided with a car, then flew off Aurora Avenue on Friday evening and dropped about 30 feet, landing upside-down on Broad Street below.

The driver managed to get out of the pickup safely, said Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick. The driver of the car had to be pulled out of the vehicle by emergency crews. Both were taken to local hospitals, but their conditions weren't available Friday night.

It's unclear what caused the 5:30 p.m. crash, but it snarled traffic on the busy streets for several hours while it was cleaned up.

Fort Lewis

Soldier killed Tuesday in Iraq

A Fort Lewis-based soldier from San Jacinto, Calif., died Tuesday when he was shot during a search operation in Iraq.

Pfc. Aaron J. Ward, 19, was assigned to the 170th Military Police Company, 504th Military Police Battalion, 42nd Military Police Brigade.

Seattle

City pays firefighter injured in training

The city of Seattle has paid more than $1.7 million in damages to the firefighter injured during a 2000 training session, ending an eight-year legal saga.

Seattle's insurance company, AIG, paid firefighter Kevin Locke $1.6 million Monday, said Assistant City Attorney Marcia Nelson, who has worked on the case.

Seattle had paid Locke $113,697 on April 2, she said.

In 2004, the city lost a lawsuit to Locke, who was injured when he fell from a ladder during the training session. In December 2007, Seattle lost a Supreme Court appeal challenging the rights of firefighters and police officers to both receive workers' compensation and sue their employers.

Auburn

Man killed by train is identified

A man struck and killed by an Amtrak train near Emerald Downs has been identified as Juan Martinez, 50.

Police said Martinez was walking on tracks in Auburn, talking on his cellphone, when he was struck by a northbound Amtrak train Wednesday. The train conductor sounded the horn and applied the emergency brakes, but couldn't stop.

It was the second fatality involving someone talking on a cellphone on railroad tracks in the past month.

Tacoma

Logging blocked in national forest

A federal judge has blocked a plan to log 2,200 acres in the Olympic National Forest.

U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton says the U.S. Forest Service approved the Bear Creek Saddle logging operation under changes the Bush administration made to the Northwest Forest Plan in 2004.

Those changes, which weakened environmental protections, have been struck down as illegal.

Leighton sent the matter back to the Forest Service to conduct a new environmental assessment of the logging's impact.

Seattle Times staff and news services