Story Photos
 Photo by Roger Werth Law enforcement officials investigate the site of Monday's collision between an Amtrak train and a car north of Castle Rock. |
Update: Victims identified in deadly train crash
Friday, July 14, 2006 7:55 AM PDT
By Tony Lystra / The Daily News
Printable version
E-mail this articleFour Castle Rock residents died Monday after an Amtrak passenger train slammed into the Honda they were in, the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office said.
Officials identified the victims as Donna K. Mako, 44; her daughter, Laura A. Mako, 17; Ace K. Hansen, 18, a Mako family friend; and Marcus A. Cokeley, 19, a Mako family friend. The four died at the scene Monday afternoon, the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office said.
[Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Laura Mako's name.]
Sheriff's Capt. Mark Nelson said some of the victims lived near the site of the crash, just north of Castle Rock.
None of the 151 passengers aboard the train were injured, and the 14-car train, which was traveling from Seattle to Eugene, did not derail, Sheriff Bill Mahoney said.
Shortly after 4:30 p.m., the silver sedan is believed to have been headed westbound on Dwight Road, which dead-ends at a small neighborhood of a half-dozen homes near the Cowlitz River. A northbound Burlington Northern Sante Fe train had just passed through the crossing, which is marked by a few traffic signs, including a stop sign.
Authorities suspect the BNSF train blocked the driver's view of the southbound Amtrak. Mahoney did not know how fast the Amtrak was going, but he said the speed limit for trains along the corridor is 79 mph.
The train ripped the car in two, leaving the front portion in a ditch near the intersection and pushing the vehicle's other half about 300 feet up the tracks. At least three of the car's occupants were ejected, although it was unclear exactly how many.
"It's a lousy deal, I'll tell you," Mahoney said.
The crash shut down all rail traffic along the corridor, which carries 60 trains daily between Seattle and Portland. And the Amtrak, which had scrapes along its front and side, remained about a half-mile from the crash site for nearly four hours until the passengers were loaded onto another train and taken south. Nelson said the other train was brought in as a precaution.
"They're not going to move it until they give it a good inspection and make sure that it's safe to travel on, so they're moving the passengers to another train," he said.
Mahoney said that witnesses gave conflicting accounts as to whether the Amtrak sounded its horn.
Rose Chainard, who lives up the road from the train crossing, said she heard the collision but didn't hear a horn.
"It just sounded kind of like a big thud," she said. "There's so many noises around here. when the train kept going, I just let it go until I heard the sirens."
Melissa Higgins, 21, who came to visit her aunt and uncle, but found their road blocked by police and Sheriff's vehicles, said the rail crossing has frightened her in the past. The intersection should be better marked, she said. But, because it is rural and leads to a dead end, she doubted authorities would change it.
"I pulled up there and within a matter of seconds there's a train blazing by," she said. "It's just right there in front of your face."
Daily News reporter Evan Caldwell contributed to this story.
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