WAPATO, Wash. -- Police and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad officials are investigating a fatal train accident Friday near Wapato.
A Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad spokesman says a 41-year-old Wapato man was struck and killed by a freight train, just south of Yakima.
The train crew sounded their whistle and applied the emergency brakes, but they could not avoid the man lying in the train's right of way.
The man's name was not released.
Spokesman Gus Melonas says the collision took place at a public crossing with automatic flashers and gates. He says it's the fourth fatality so far this year on BNSF rail lines in Washington.
