Tuesday evening, June 2, 2026, around six o’clock, a train on Seattle’s Sound Transit 1 Line came to an abrupt stop. An obstruction sat on the elevated tracks near Mount Baker Station in a southeast neighborhood not far from downtown. The cause turned out to be a red Mazda CX-5 SUV that had driven onto the rails and kept going for roughly a quarter mile before getting stuck on the raised guideway.
The 70-year-old driver later told emergency personnel that she had been following directions from a GPS navigation deevice. Either the system or the driver misread the directions, leading her to an entry point or a bend that put her straight on the light rail’s right-of-way. She simply continued to follow the app’s directions after that, even when she encountered difficult parts of the road and the rails became visible beneath her tires. When the truck hit the higher part of the station, she was out of luck; it would not drive any farther.
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Police officers who arrived on the scene described her as in a hazy state. It took her a long time to answer even the most basic questions, and it was odd that she didn’t appear any more impaired than the average person, with no symptoms of alcohol or drugs. By the time help arrived, she had already exited the vehicle. Seattle Fire came to the scene to assure her safety, and paramedics took her to Swedish Cherry Hill Hospital for assessment. She was thought to be in stable condition, and they did not charge her.
Sound Transit responded immediately, resolving the issue with the line and its users. They shut off the electricity to the overhead electrical lines that crossed the damaged stretch of train. This suspended 1 Line service between SODO and Othello stations while they figured out how to get the vehicle out of the way; a standard tow truck just wouldn’t work on the elevated rails. Instead, they brought in some heavy equipment designed for train operations. They brought in a swing loader, which workmen used to haul the SUV off using heavy straps, as it was pretty difficult. A normal tow vehicle was eventually able to remove the SUV from the guideway.
The entire ordeal was over in around two hours. As a result, customers were stuck in the middle without service, but Line officials dispatched a bevy of shuttle buses to keep things moving. The Mount Baker station reopened at 9 p.m. that night, and service on both the 1 and 2 lines resumed by 10:30 p.m., however some people continued to encounter delays into the evening.
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