Sound Transit train and car collide in Seattle

A motorist was injured this afternoon in a collision with a Sound Transit light-rail train in Rainier Valley, the third incident since train testing began there this spring.

The crash happened just after 5 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and South Myrtle Street, right next to the Othello light-rail station in Southeast Seattle.

Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray said the car was heading south and made a left turn, against a red light, from MLK Way onto Myrtle as the train traveled alongside the car. The train was heading south in the median of MLK.

According to Dana Echols, who said she witnessed the crash, the train T-boned the car.

Emergency crews tore the roof off the car, and used a stretcher to remove the driver. He was the only person in the car, and had non-life threatening injuries, transit police said.

Sound Transit is testing its trains along the 14-mile route from downtown Seattle to Tukwila, in preparation for service to begin July 18.

The wreck was cleared at 6:30 p.m. and train tests resumed.

This is the third incident involving a test train in Rainier Valley, where tracks run in a median at street level. Two involved cars, and in one case, a person walked into the side of a train.

"We've been running 20 hours a day for over a month here. We think people are getting used to it, but incidents like this are a reminder for people to follow the rules," Gray said.