BNSF says female killed Monday at Boulevard Park may be a ‘trespassing situation’
An unidentified female pedestrian who was killed Monday afternoon after being hit by a southbound freight train near the north end of Bellingham’s Boulevard Park may have been trespassing on railroad property.
Bellingham police Sgt. Dennis James confirmed Monday to The Bellingham Herald that the person who was hit by the train had died, but said police were still trying to identify the person.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesperson Gus Melonas told The Bellingham Herald in an interview Tuesday that the pedestrian was female and that the railroad believes the incident was a “non-crossing, trespass situation,” on BNSF property, meaning the incident would not have occurred at the South Bay Trail crossing.
“We are investigating this further,” Melonas told The Herald.
The autopsy was completed Tuesday, Whatcom County Medical Examiner Dr. Gary Goldfogel told The Bellingham Herald in an email Tuesday, and the Bellingham Police Department is attempting to notify next of kin.
The incident occurred at approximately 3:20 p.m., Melonas said.
According to emergency radio traffic at about 3:30 p.m., crews at the scene were asking for a support officer and that responding crews were looking near the South Bay Trail.
The north end of the park and the footpath were blocked off with crime scene tape. Police were seen searching a backpack found in the area. Burlington Northern Santa Fe personnel and the police department’s crime scene investigation team also were on scene.
James said BNSF investigators had video from onboard the train that would be examined by train and police investigators to determine the cause of the incident.
“We’ve got our crime scene investigator here and we’ve got the traffic unit who investigates it,” James told The Herald. “And part of that is he has to take a look at the evidence here and then determine what it looks like from that end and then the traffic unit will go and work with Burlington Northern, usually they have video on the trains and so they’ll be able to see what happened and then that will direct a lot of the rest of our investigation.
“So until we get those things, I don’t want to speculate until we know more.”
Melonas said the train was hauling general freight from Vancouver, B.C., to Vancouver, Washington, and that the rail line was shut down until approximately 7:30 p.m. On average, Melonas said, 25 trains travel the line per day.
There were no injuries to the BNSF crew onboard the train, Melonas said.
The last fatal train incident in Boulevard Park occurred May 22, 2008, when Maia Haykin, 49, was biking on the South Bay Trail and was hit by an Amtrak train en route to Seattle.
According to Utilities and Transportation Commission statistics, this is the 22nd fatal collision with a train this year in Washington state. Melonas said it was the 21st this year to occur on BNSF property.
In 2017, the UTC reported 29 fatal incidents in Washington state involving a train.
Whatcom County’s last fatal train incident occurred Oct. 9, 2017, according to the UTC, when a trespassing pedestrian was struck by an Amtrak train south of downtown Bellingham at Pine and Wharf streets.
This story was originally published December 11, 2018 at 9:15 AM with the headline "BNSF says female killed Monday at Boulevard Park may be a ‘trespassing situation’."
