In brief: Teen’s death by train ruled suicide
The person struck and killed by a train in Spokane Valley on Thursday has been identified as a 15-year-old girl. The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office has declared her death a suicide.
The girl was hit on the tracks west of Sullivan Road along Trent Avenue at 7 a.m. Thursday. The crew of the train saw her, sounded their whistle and applied the emergency brake but could not stop in time, said BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas. The train was going under the speed limit at the time, he said.
Two dead in crash near Marysville, Wash.
MARYSVILLE, Wash. – The Washington State Patrol says two people were killed in a head-on collision Friday on Highway 9 near Marysville.
Troopers say a northbound Ford Explorer apparently crossed the centerline and collided with a car. The man and woman in the car were pronounced dead at the scene. The patrol identified them as 42-year-old Adam Huzar and 38-year-old Agnieszka Huzar, both of Marysville.
The patrol said the 62-year-old driver of the Explorer was taken to an Everett hospital.
State saw 64 workplace deaths in 2014
OLYMPIA – Preliminary figures from the Washington Department of Labor and Industries show 64 workplace deaths last year in the state.
KUOW reported five of the Oso landslide victims in March were on the job, including two electricians and a satellite dish installer.
The year 2014 was the worst for Washington workers since 2010, when 89 workers died, including seven in an explosion at the Tesoro refinery in Anacortes.
After that accident, Labor and Industries hit Tesoro with a $2.38 million workplace-safety fine, the largest in Washington history. The company appealed, and the case is still before a judge.
Security guard may have frozen to death
COQUILLE, Ore. – A night watchman for a logging operation has been found dead, and it’s believed he succumbed to freezing temperatures.
The Coos County sheriff’s office said 53-year-old Guy Abel, of Myrtle Point, was reported missing Thursday morning, several hours after workers arriving for a shift noticed his trailer unoccupied and the wood stove cold after a night when the temperature fell into the 20s.
Friends of Abel found his body about a mile away as deputies arrived.
The sheriff’s office said Abel drove to the spot on an ATV, and the vehicle got stuck.
Abel needed crutches to walk, and always strapped them to the ATV. However, in this case, he left them at the campsite and couldn’t walk back when the ATV got stuck.
A medical examiner is investigating.
Montana police ID officer, man he shot
MISSOULA – Missoula County officials have identified a Missoula police officer and the man he shot after a pursuit that began with a domestic disturbance report.
Sheriff’s detective Scott Newell on Friday said Officer Paul Kelly shot Kaileb Cole Williams in the head early Wednesday as Williams, 20, was strangling his girlfriend in a car.
“She thought he was going to kill her,” Newell told the Missoulian. “She felt the police saved her life.”
Williams’ mother called 911 shortly after 2 a.m. Wednesday to report her son had assaulted her and had driven off in her car.
The mother said Williams’ girlfriend asked her to come pick her up, but the girlfriend got into the car without overnight bags. Williams’ mother said she went inside to get some of her belongings and her son punched her in the face and then drove away in the car with his girlfriend inside, county officials said.
Williams was intoxicated and had been using spice, or synthetic marijuana, for a few days, Newell said.
Seattle records fifth-wettest year
SEATTLE – More than an inch of rain was recorded in the last week of December at Sea-Tac Airport to give it a total for the year of 48.5 inches.
That made it the fifth-wettest year on record in Seattle, representing a generally wet and warm 2014 across Washington.
It was also the all-time warmest year on record, by 1 degree. The Weather Service said the average temperature at SeaTac was about 55 degrees, exceeding the previous record of about 54 degrees set in 1995.