Train, truck collide in Marysville

Published 11:22 pm Monday, March 17, 2008

MARYSVILLE — Start with a truck loaded with frozen pizza and cheesecakes stopped at a Marysville railroad crossing.

Add a fast-moving freight train.

It was a recipe for disaster. Or at least a crummy commute Monday morning.

The food was scattered, but no one was seriously hurt when the freight train sliced into the semi along State Avenue.

Three engines and one boxcar jumped the tracks and the truck’s trailer was shredded like mozzarella.

The collision happened about 5:45 a.m., said Marysville Fire District spokeswoman Stephanie Price. The truck driver and one train crew member were taken to an Everett hospital as a precaution.

The truck apparently was making a delivery to the Pacific Grinding Wheel Company headquarters, Marysville police Lt. Jeff Goldman said.

A spokeswoman at Pacific Grinding declined to comment Monday.

The engineer on the northbound train tried to avoid the collision, applying the emergency brake and blowing the train’s whistle, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway spokesman Gus Melonas said.

The train was traveling about 49 mph in the 60-mph zone, Melonas said. It was headed to Vancouver, B.C., from Pasco. Three cars were loaded with general freight and 69 other cars were empty, he said. It typically takes about a mile for a train that large to come to a stop.

The truck was stopped at a private crossing that’s marked with a cross-hatch and a stop sign but not equipped with signal lights or crossing arms. It would be up to the property owner to invest in any improvements, Melonas said.

Investigators on Monday were trying to determine why the truck was on tracks, Goldman said.

State Avenue between 136th Avenue and 116th Avenue was expected to be closed until early this morning as crews cleaned up the mess, Goldman said.

The accident forced many businesses along the stretch of road to close Monday.

“I’m a little irritated,” said Jason Davis, who manages a stone and landscaping supply business in the area.

Kathy Torgerson lives off 128th Avenue and had to find another way home from a doctor’s appointment Monday morning.

She stopped by to take a look at the giant derailed locomotives. The lead engine slammed into a sidewalk on State Avenue, uprooting it like a bulldozer.

“I’m amazed nobody was killed,” Torgerson said.

At least three people have been killed in the same stretch of railroad track since 1999. Two people died walking on the tracks and one man was killed in a pickup truck at the same crossing where Monday’s collision occurred.

Melonas said Monday’s incident wasn’t connected to any prior problems.

Monday’s derailment disrupted Amtrak passenger service on the line. Amtrak had to arrange for bus service between Seattle and Bellingham, Melonas said.

Parts of the rail were ripped up and likely will have to be replaced, he said.

“It looks like a roller coaster-type track,” said Cheryl Le Bar, who was among the many people who came to snap photos of the derailed train cars. The steel rail was bowed where the derailment occurred.

Le Bar was working in the area and heard the crash.

“It was a big, loud bang,” she said.

Louise Wood said she wasn’t surprised by the collision.

“It was just a matter of time,” she said.

Each day on her way to work, she drives along the busy stretch of State Avenue. As long freight trains rumble by, she said, she often sees long lines of vehicles waiting to turn into the businesses across the tracks.

“It’s too dangerous,” she said. “They’re either going to have to build an underpass or an overpass or close those businesses.”

Either that, or stop sending out for pizza.

Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.