A 53-year-old man was found dead early Saturday after being struck by a train on railroad tracks near the 20300 block of U.S. 2, east of Old Owen Road, in Monroe, Washington. Police say the collision happened in the early morning hours, and the man's death marks the latest fatal train-pedestrian incident to strike Snohomish County in recent weeks.
According to the Monroe Police Department, officers are now investigating the incident alongside officials from Burlington Northern Railroad. Police have not released the man's name or offered any additional details about how he ended up on the tracks, leaving many basic questions about the case still unanswered.
A separate report from KOMO News described a pedestrian struck and killed by a train Friday morning in downtown Monroe, with police and medics responding at about 6:15 a.m. east of the Main Street railroad crossing. That station reported the victim was pronounced dead at the scene, and that no other information about the victim was immediately available. It is not clear from the available reporting whether that incident and the one described by Monroe police involve the same person, the same day, or the same location.
Downtown Crossings Blocked During Investigation
In the incident KOMO covered, the train blocked the East Main Street, North Lewis Street and North Kelsey Street railroad crossings while investigators worked the scene, the station reported. The 179th Street and Fryelands Boulevard crossings stayed open, allowing residents to still reach downtown Monroe during the closures.
The circumstances surrounding Saturday's death near Old Owen Road remain unclear, and Monroe police have not said what led the man onto the tracks or whether the railroad's investigation has produced any findings. No information about his identity has been released.
Monroe's History With Fatal Train Strikes
This is not the first time a train has killed someone on the tracks running through Monroe. In January 2018, a man believed to be in his late 30s was struck and killed near Woods Creek shortly after 6 a.m., according to The Herald. The conductor in that case told investigators he saw a man lying on the rails and tried to stop the train before impact, and the recovery effort shut down Main Street from U.S. 2 for hours.
That same Herald report noted that Snohomish County recorded three deaths on train tracks in 2017 alone, including pedestrians killed in Edmonds, Sultan and near Silvana, according to state records cited in the article. The pattern has continued well beyond the county's borders in recent weeks.
A Troubling September in Marysville
Just two and a half weeks before the Monroe death, Marysville police reported a fatal train-and-pedestrian collision that killed a 45-year-old man, according to MyNorthwest. Marysville officials said that crash was the city's fourth serious train-related incident in a single month and its second fatality, with causes ranging from substance abuse and behavioral health crises to risky decisions made by drivers and pedestrians, per the outlet.
State rail-safety records also list other fatal incidents around Washington in the past year, including a January 2026 crash in Kelso where an Amtrak passenger train struck a trespasser near milepost 97, and a December 2025 collision in Wapato involving a BNSF freight train and a vehicle, according to the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission. Monroe police have not provided an update on the investigation into Saturday's death, and the man's identity has not been released.
