Man posing for photo struck, killed by train near Kalama, WA

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CHamilton

CHamilton

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Man posing for photo struck, killed by train near Kalama

A man posing for a photo south of Kalama was struck and killed by an Amtrak train Saturday morning.

According to a press release from the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office, the man had been driving to Portland from Tacoma. He and a female traveling companion stopped to smoke a cigarette and take photos along the Columbia River near the 300 block of Dupont Road in Kalama.

The man was posing for a photo between the two railroad tracks while a northbound BNSF freight train was approaching. He apparently did not see an approaching southbound Amtrak train, which struck and killed him at about 10:30 a.m., according to the press release.
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Oof. All I can say is I feel really bad for his apparent girlfriend.
 
Seems like this exact same thing under very similar circumstances happened to a guy who was getting a pic taken by his gf somewhere along this same line in the past year or so.
 
Sounds like things are working exactly as designed. Now if only we could speed up the post-impact process to get the innocent travelers back on their way.
 
Unbelievable. They've been running large numbers of trains at 79 mph through there for decades now.

Do people stop to pose for photos in the middle of Interstate Highways? (Geez, don't tell me, maybe it happens all the time...)
 
neroden said:
Unbelievable. They've been running large numbers of trains at 79 mph through there for decades now.

Do people stop to pose for photos in the middle of Interstate Highways? (Geez, don't tell me, maybe it happens all the time...)
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Tell that to the lady my wife yelled at yesterday on her way to work. She stopped in the middle of an interstate offramp (and not a quiet one either) to place a real estate "open house" sign on the shoulder.

Mrs. Blackwolf makes for a very scary biker girl, and one who is extremely situationally aware! The Yamaha R-6 she rides probably made for strong impressions in of itself. The real estate sign lady quickly reconsidered her placement.
 
Sorry if this is a bit morbid, but who had that Amtrak train wait for 3 hours? I wonder if it was Amtrak itself, and that was the time required to get a replacement engineer to the train (standard procedures under such circumstances?)? I mean, I can't envision the police needing to "grill" the engineer for details for those three long hours.
 
May need to start taking the Japanese approach. Take lots of pictures, clean up, then send the train on its way within 15 minutes.

Then bill the family.
 
Guest said:
Sorry if this is a bit morbid, but who had that Amtrak train wait for 3 hours? I wonder if it was Amtrak itself, and that was the time required to get a replacement engineer to the train (standard procedures under such circumstances?)? I mean, I can't envision the police needing to "grill" the engineer for details for those three long hours.
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In the event of a human death, its the Coroner (not law enforcement) who decides when the train may be released. Collecting evidence includes locating and collecting body parts. Law enforcement will be conducting interviews and performing other investigative functions (measurements, photos, etc.)
 
Just one comment/reminder on the tragedy. Yes, it's easy to blame the victim, but keep in mind someone's loved one has died. And it would not be the first time friends or family have sought out online forums for answers, solace or more and your comments could very easily be read by them.
 
StriderGDM said:
Just one comment/reminder on the tragedy. Yes, it's easy to blame the victim, but keep in mind someone's loved one has died. And it would not be the first time friends or family have sought out online forums for answers, solace or more and your comments could very easily be read by them.
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Let me ask you something Strider. If you see this accident prone individual as the "victim" then who in your mind is the "perpetrator?" The way I see it if some bereaved friend or family member needs a kind shoulder and a soft touch then maybe they should be talking to a specialist rather than trying to beg or bully random strangers into feeling sorry for them. If people need a sugar coated no-fault discussion that's up to them to find or create on their own. They're still free to build a Facespace memorial and fish for likes by weeping poetic about their tragic loss. The rest of us are in no way obligated to ignore the carelessness of their dearly departed.

I went to the internet looking for answers and solace but all I found was a bitter dose of reality and a strong aftertaste of raw knowledge.
 
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I'm not sure whether the lengthy delay was necessary, but I can tell you it's pretty common. When I was a new Amtrak employee in 1987, I was taking a training trip to qualify as an LSA. We stopped on a sharply banked curve someplace in Connecticut after hitting a pedestrian (with the usual result). It was an apparent suicide. We sat there for several hours before the train was released by local officials. During that time, everybody decided they needed a drink, so the line to the lounge never ended till we got underway again. People had a hard time walking through the train, which was seriously tilted on that superelevated curve.

Tom
 
Devil's Advocate said:
The rest of us are in no way obligated to ignore the carelessness of their dearly departed.
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Still, a little humanity might be nice.

The train was not the victim here because it got a little blood on it. The passengers were not the victims because they were slightly inconvenienced.

Let's have a little perspective.
 
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