Updated at 8:06 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A woman was struck by a freight train yesterday in Centralia but pronounced dead at the hospital.
Firefighters and police called about 1:40 p.m. to the 100 block of South Railroad Avenue found the patient who was approximately 50 years old, according to authorities.
She was transported to Providence Centralia Hospital where she died, Riverside Fire Authority reports.
It wasn’t the train crew that reported it, because it didn’t happen at the front of the train, according to BNSF spokesperson Gus Melonas. She walked into the side of the southbound train, Melonas said.
The crossing where she was walking when she was hit was at East Locust Street, the same intersection where last summer, Vic Bonagofski fell off his bicycle and was killed by a train.
The BNSF rail lines were closed for approximately 30 minutes yesterday afternoon.
The Centralia Police Department is investigating. The Lewis County Coroner’s Office today said they know who the woman is and are in the process of notifying her next-of-kin. Her name has not been released.