Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman Gus Melonas told local paper the News-Tribune and the Associated Press that the incident occurred near Tacoma at about 3pm Monday.
The loaded train was northbound on its way to British Columbia, Canada, when it hit the still-unidentified male. One report said the area where the man was located was not easily accessible.
Melonas said the train’s crew saw the man on the track and applied the emergency brake, but could not avoid hitting him.
He said the Tacoma-Seattle corridor, which was reopened Monday evening at about 5.30pm, was used by about 50 trains daily.
An investigation by local officials and BNSF into the cause of the incident is underway.
The death follows news of an unidentified 26-year-old man killed in northwest Indiana that officials believe was a jumper who rode one of the South Shore Freight line’s cars and possibly slipped.
His body was discovered at the Northern Indiana Public Service Company Michigan City Generating Station property in Michigan City.
In related coal train news, a Kentucky derailment last week that spilled tons of coal is still being cleaned up this week.
Paducah & Louisville Railroad spokeswoman Bonnie Hackbarth told the AP that work to clear the overturned cars near Elizabethtown, Hardin County began Monday and was expected to continue for several days.
No-one was injured in last Thursday’s incident, which involved 15 overturned cars of an 88-car train and another 10 that were jackknifed.
Five of those cars lost their coal loads.
Hackbarth said an investigation into the derailment was ongoing.
