Woman hit by Amtrak train near Golden Gardens

Geeky Swedes Ballard

A woman walking along the train near NW Neptune and Blue Ridge Drive was struck and killed by an Amtrak train Thursday afternoon. The accident happened about a mile north of Golden Gardens Park.

Neighbors told KING 5 that the woman was wearing headphones, and people yelled to catch her attention before she was hit.

The train was headed from Seattle to Chicago. Investigators are expected to be at the scene until this evening. Seattle Police did not release any more information, and we’ll keep you updated.

Geeky Swedes

The founders of My Ballard

60 thoughts to “Woman hit by Amtrak train near Golden Gardens”

  3. And I give you the Captain Obvious award. Even if she was wearing headphones, the ground borne vibrations + train horn are hard to miss. I wonder if that was suicide by train. Regardless, a death is a death and mocking her death makes you look like a .

    I feel bad for her family and the engine driver who (helplessly) watched her die.

  5. Assuming you can hear a train, and so avoid it, is risky. I read about a guy getting hit by a train once, and it was said that the acoustics are such (I don’t remember the exact explanation) that you might hear nothing til the train hits you. Train tracks should be regarded as dangerous and you should be very vigilant if close.

    Thoughts and prayers for the woman and her family.

  6. sounds like a suicide, nobody walks on the trains with headphones in. headphones also dont roar over a train whistle, nor the vibrations on the tracks.
    pretty peaceful way to go if you ask me, wouldn’t mind dying suddenly to my favorite song.

  8. if you do obsianmaul, try not to be so selfish with your act.

    maybe pick a non-passenger train so you don’t ruin the holidays for a few hundred people.

  9. No, just Stupidcide, people use RR tracks as a sidewalk all the time. No one goes for a stroll down the middle of a road. Never understood the ignorance.

  11. i grew up in that neighborhood, and was once walking alongside the tracks in that same area with a friend when i was a teenager…nothing covering our ears…something told me to look back, and there was an amtrack train only a few hundred feet behind us. it really freaked us out, because we didn’t ‘consciously’ hear anything…i don’t even remember feeling vibrations. i found that this is not the case with the other trains…something definitely different with the amtrack. i doubt it was suicide…just a very horrible accident.

  12. There are times of year I’m down there just about every day – the following never cease to amaze me:
    (1) Many people walk along those tracks from GG to Carkeek, frequently in the middle of the tracks.
    (2) Depending on the wind noise, the particular train, the wave action and where I am relative to all that, some trains you just don’t hear until they’re moments away.
    (3) Some trains you hear from Edmonds, or before they’re visible from the Seattle side, leading you to think that point 2 just isn’t possible.

    Regardless of what the causes were, there are no winners in this one. Lousy all the way around.

  14. please don’t make up excuses for this moron. while i suppose it’s possible that wind noise and wave action may have prevented her from hearing the train, it’s more likley her headphones and lack of common sense prevented her from hearing the train.

    besides, she shouldn’t have been walking on an active train track in the first place. period.

  16. “tragic event”

    i disagree. someone dying in a plane crash or getting killed by drunk driver is a tragic event. 18 other people have been killed walking/crossing BNSF tracks in the region this year. all of these incidents were completely avoidable and therefore, not tragic at all. it was just plain stupid.

  19. why would you say that?

    Catherine’s comment isn’t telling people to go walk on the tracks more often or anything so what is the problem???

  22. The anonymity of a keyboard shouldn’t give anyone license to say these things. Would one go up to her mother, father, sister or brother at the funeral home and say ‘sorry for your loss, she was a moron.’ ? Would one speculate whether it was a suicide? No one wouldn’t. One does so because b/c it’s safer to make a response that is so socially unacceptable and cruel anonymously.

    What does it matter? She died. My condolences to her family and friends.

  23. Probably time to shut down the comment board on this article. Apparently we have a lot of nasty Big Blue trolls in the Ballard community.

  24. In Boston the subway, known as “The T” is at street level in a few places. I was waiting to cross one of the bigger avenues with several lanes of traffic and two tracks for the T down the middle, inbound and outbound. There is a little sidewalk island around the tracks for people who don’t make it all the way across before the signal changes. Alone on the island was a young guy with headphones on standing on the inbound tracks watching the outbound train coming. What he didn’t see was the inbound train bearing down on him. All the people waiting on either side of the street were helplessly waving their arms at him and pointing, the inbound train sounded its horn, but the guy kept looking at the outbound train. At the last possible second he realized the horn was the inbound train and not the outbound and somehow jumped back just as the train got there. He barely cleared the train but the bag he was carrying was hit and knocked out of his hands as the train full of people clinging to their seats in an emergency stop slid past.
    Luckily this guy just got a scare and lost some papers out of his bag, but it was close. Up until that last second he seemed perfectly confident that he was completely safe and in no danger. Hopefully he learned from this and doesn’t stand on the tracks anymore and hopefully people will learn from this tragedy that tracks are not a path.

  26. Catherine, you’re right. I’m down on that beach a lot. I am amazed at how the combination of wind and waves can block the sound of an oncoming train. It’s very disceptive, and you have to be on your guard.

  27. my reply tells you absolutely nothing? how so? seems pretty self-explanatory to me, but let me explain:

    i don’t know the exact fraction, but I would guess the average amtrak trains that use those tracks to be at most 1/5th the size of the average freight trains that use those tracks.

    i would guess a typical amtrak train is about a dozen cars in length, 20 cars at most, based on my epxerience taking one to vancouver, my in-laws’ experiene taking the exact train (route) involved in this accident, and the numerous amtrak trains i’ve seen go by at Golden Gardens, and pass in a matter of seconds.

    i would guess a typical freight train is several dozen cars in length, in many cases probably well over a hundred cars, based on the ones i’ve seen go by in Golden Gardens, and take several minutes to pass

    now for the physics part, which might be where you’re getting lost. since amtrak trains are smaller, and thus lighter, than freight trains, it would seem plausible that they wouldn’t vibrate the ground as much or make as much noise.

    get it?

  29. what exactly is inappropriate about calling this woman foolish for walking on active train tracks (despite the no tresspassing signs)?

    sorry, but when you play with fire you get burned. and in this case, so did the engineer of the train, people who witnessed the accident, and all of the passengers who were delayed because of this woman’s foolish and illegal activity.

  31. did i call anything out? I was just suggesting to those who are up in arms over comments to work with the Swedes to have them handled rather than the constant whining or falling for the bait.

  35. seriously, too bad it wasn’t you bigblue. you seem to have all the facts. must’ve been there watching, huh?

    the only tragic event was your birth

  36. wow. you wish i was killed by a train just because i condemn somebody who walked on active train tracks and got killed.

    i know the truth is painful some times, but grow up

  37. “saying something is ‘a fraction’ doesn’t necessarily imply it’s smaller.”

    really? here’s the definition of the word “fraction” from dictionary.com:

    1. Mathematics .
    a. a number usually expressed in the form a/b.
    b. a ratio of algebraic quantities similarly expressed.
    2. Chemistry . (in a volatile mixture) a component whose range of boiling point temperatures allows it to be separated from other components by fractionation.
    3. a part as distinct from the whole of anything; portion or section: The meeting started with a fraction of us present.
    4. a very small part or segment of anything; minute portion: Only a fraction of the work was completed on time.
    5. a very small amount; a little bit: It was only a fraction away from completion.
    6. a piece broken off; fragment or bit.
    7. the act of breaking.
    8. Ecclesiastical . (in a Eucharistic service) the breaking of the Host.

    do you understand what the words “portion” or “section” mean? let me explain. a portion or section of something is smaller than that something.

    a fraction is typically a piece of a whole (value of less than 1). yes, a fraction can represent more than a whole and have a value of greater than 1, but fraction is typically used to mean the former.

    besides, most grown ups i know understand how to decipher the exact meaning and intent of a word from the context in which it is used.

    not sure what other meaning the word “fraction” could have in the sentenece “amtrak trains are a fraction of the size of freight trains” other than implying that amtrak trains are smaller than freight trains.

    even my 1st and 3rd grade kids understand what that sentence implies

  38. she wasn’t crossing the tracks, she was walking on them from golden gardens to carkeek, which is illegal.

    and where exactly are these legal crossings that have you walk on/across the tracks rather than over or under them?

  41. First you wished my demise by train. Now I’m a jerk because you don’t understand the meaning or context of the word fraction. Grow up.

  46. I wasn’t there, so there’s no way I could actually know what happened, or what was going on inside this person’s head. Regardless, it was a tragedy. It’s best just to leave it at that.

  47. Hahahaha

    Big Blue is the nickname of a professional football team that came here and whooped the seahawks.

    Actually went to a second-rate school that ranks (and has always ranked) higher than any school in this state, commonly referred to as a “sub-ivy”..

  48. you mean the same team that Mike Vick & co. trounced last week?

    oh yeah!

    don’t think much of the schools in this state either–glad we agree on something!

  49. a game that ends 27-17, during which the giants held a lead and had a 4th quarter game-tying drive stifled by a fumble is a trouncing?

    do i need to explain football to like i explained fraction?

    a trouncing is a game that ends 41-7 and was NEVER close.

  55. I was not friends with the woman who was hit by this train. But she was very close to people that I love and respect. It saddens me that our community members can’t refrain from their judgments on one person’s tragic loss of life. Does it help the facts if you call her names or place judgment on her decisions? She’s dead now.

    Many people in our community, and smaller communities within the community, are mourning the loss of their friend, their sister, their teacher, their colleague. She was loved by many, many people. I’m ashamed to think I share a community with so many cold individuals ready to lay judgment – and without facts of the situation – on someone already gone. Shame on you.

  57. She was a beautiful woman who, while surround by friends, made the decision to not carry on with a difficult past. She had a large community of friends, was a caregiver and friend to many. She will be so missed by all of us who know and love her. For those of you who didn’t know her, better not to judge.

  58. She was a beautiful person and friend to so many. It was a tragic and unfortunate decision she made. I would encourage all of us to see the preciousness of those we love and the realize we can be left without them at any moment. ….we turn around and find they are gone. But our love remains.

  59. I am also a friend of hers, and I don’t think it was intentional. She was an incredibly free spirit and often times oblivious to danger. This allowed for a lovely, full life for her. I am glad she was able to experience as much as she was in her short ife. She was a bright being and I’ll always remember her…

  60. Just to let it be known – I was on that train, and they laid on the horn for a very long time, I find it very hard to believe that you could not hear that even with headphones on. The train was a pretty long one, we had four engines and based on being on the train, I’m sure the tracks would have been shaking as well. My heart goes out to friends and family of the victim, but I really have no sympathy for her.

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