Families of a Seattle Couple Killed by a Light Rail Train to Receive $6.5 Million

Seattle transportation agencies will pay $6.5 million to settle a lawsuit over a light rail crash that killed a Rainier Valley couple on their way to a Mariners game.

Their families alleged that Sound Transit’s trackway is hazardous in that area, where trains run along the street, and lacked sufficient pedestrian safety features such as crossing arms. The agencies argued that the area was well-marked and the couple proceeded against a don’t-walk signal.

Emoke Rock, 76, and Steven Wayne, 66, were walking toward Columbia City Station on July 2, 2021. A northbound train pulled up at the station platform on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South. The couple walked east on South Alaska Street across MLK Way, toward the northbound platform on the far side of the median. As they stepped onto the median trackway, they didn’t notice a second train on their left, heading south. Crash investigators reported the train operator didn’t have time to stop.

Read the source article at The Columbian