A local man who was hard of hearing was killed Dec. 30 when he was hit by a train near the intersection of West Second and Cherry Heights Road.
Kennith Dwayne Strunk, who was 35, used hearing aids. None were found on him or near him when he died, said The Dalles Police Detective Sgt. Eric Macnab.
A dispatcher for Union Pacific called local police about the incident at 5:21 p.m., Macnab said.
The train conductor told police he repeatedly sounded his horn — “It felt like 50 times,” he told officers — but Strunk did not “make an effort to turn or look at the train,” Macnab said.
The conductor said he saw Strunk walking down the tracks and sounded his horn. The incident happened at a long straightaway on the tracks, Macnab said. Strunk was deceased when police found him.
Macnab said it appeared to be “a terrible accident.”
This accident happened perhaps a quarter mile away from another fatal train-pedestrian accident, which occurred in July 2014 near First and Union, Macnab said.
Struck was walking on the north side of the tracks. The police report did not say how fast the train was going, Macnab said.
Macnab said police don’t see very many people walking on the railroad tracks. They are generally not by roads, and generally do not have destinations on the other side of them that would generate pedestrian crossings.
A call placed to Union Pacific was not returned by presstime. Strunk had several children, Macnab said. It could not be learned how many by presstime.
A 2012 report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch found that about 500 pedestrians are killed each year by trains.
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