Staff reports

A man was struck and killed by a freight train while walking along the Union Pacific Railroad tracks on a fog-shrouded Thursday morning, authorities said.

The incident happened around 7 a.m. The body of a man in his 40s – a known transient – was found at 29th Street and Emerald Downs Way in Auburn, police said.

The victim’s name has not been released.

The train engineer didn’t realize they had struck a person, perhaps some rocks, while passing through Auburn. Later, at a scheduled stop in Fife, the train operator discovered it had struck someone after noticing “debris” in front of the train.

Police said the man had been walking along the tracks, and investigators say they don’t believe his death was a suicide, but an accident because of the fog.