Train strikes, kills Ephrata man

EPHRATA — Jason Alan Watts, 35, Ephrata, died after he was struck by a train, roughly two miles from Ephrata, Sunday night.

Watts was reportedly walking westbound on the train tracks when he was struck by a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train traveling eastbound, Grant County Undersheriff John Turley stated Tuesday. The incident occurred in the area of a canal maintenance road west of state Route 28 near Road 11.7 Northwest.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

“The train’s conductor advised they saw Watts at a distance of about 300 yards ahead of them,” he stated. “The engineer sounded his horns and applied the trains air-assisted brakes but could not stop in time.”

He was struck by the locomotive, to the right of the front engine. Watts was thrown from the tracks.

The 6,700 foot long freight train was pulling 74 cars and traveling at about 60 mph at the time of the collision, Turley stated.

— Staff report