Kent man, 20, fatally struck by train Saturday, July 11 | Update
Published 9:43 am Monday, July 13, 2026
A 20-year-old Kent man was fatally struck by a train Saturday afternoon, July 11 near South 259th Street and the BNSF Railway tracks.
Officers responded at about 2:55 p.m. to a report of a pedestrian who had been struck by a train, according to a July 11 Kent Police news release. Officers found the man, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office on Monday, July 13 ruled the cause of death as multiple blunt force injuries and the manner of death a suicide.
Deaths by train
This marks the third death of a pedestrian by train so far this year in Kent. Two others were killed in separate incidents in February.
Twenty-eight pedestrians have been killed by trains in the city over the last nine years, according to the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission website. Three were killed in 2025, two in 2024, one in 2023, four in 2022, seven in 2021, three in 2020, four in 2019 and one in 2018.
Kent Police and the King County Medical Examiner’s Office try to determine the cause of deaths, which are often listed as accidents if they are unable to confirm by witnesses or relatives if the incident was a suicide or not. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on its website states that nationally hundreds of people lose their lives every year on railroad tracks due to suicide.
