Police car parked on railroad tracks with suspect in back seat is hit by train!

SeniorBen

Senior Member
The officers were responding to a report of a road rage confrontation that involved a gun in Fort Lupton. A Platteville police officer stopped Rios-Gonzalez’s truck near a set of railroad tracks and parked the patrol vehicle atop the tracks.

According to the Colorado bureau of investigation, the traffic stop that the officers conducted was considered high risk because they detained Rios-Gonzalez on suspicion of felony menacing, so they put her in the back of a patrol cruiser on the scene.

An edited excerpt of body-camera and dashboard-camera footage posted online shows officers searching the pickup truck and the surrounding area for firearms before a train’s horn is heard in the distance. The officers appear to take at least 15 seconds to realize a Union Pacific train was incoming.

Once one of the officers grasps that the train is approaching the patrol cruiser, they yell while another officer tells his colleague to “stay back”. An officer is then shown turning around a few times near the patrol vehicle before ultimately running for cover as the train slammed into the car, pushing it several yards down the tracks.

After about 20 seconds, a Platteville police officer is heard repeatedly saying: “Hey, was she in there? Was she in there? Was she in there?”

“Oh my God, yes, she was,” the Fort Lupton officer yells back before calling for medical emergency assistance. Both officers run towards the cruiser that the train hit.

According to her attorney Paul Wilkinson, Rios-Gonzalez was unconscious by the time she arrived at the hospital. She suffered numerous injuries, including a broken arm that required surgery, nine broken ribs, a fractured sternum, and a wound to her back and head.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/24/colorado-train-hits-police-car-woman-inside-video
 

This is a sad case of stupidity, first why park on a live railway crossing,
why leave the car there with somebody inside it, when they went to do
something else.

All of the above because of a supposed road rage incident, allegedly.

These officers will surely be looking for another job, they should be, but
of course they might end up in prison.

Mike.
 

That was horrific.

I know nothing about law enforcement. Is there a standard for the distance parked behind a suspect's vehicle? Even if they did park on the track, how did no one have the foresight to move the vehicle off the track once the woman was put into it? There was no thinking going on there.
 
More training is needed. I guess the cops need to be told not to park on railroad tracks. :rolleyes:

People that stupid shouldn't be allowed to own weapons of any kind, yet it's part of their job! :eek:
 
..I sincerely hope that the amount that is awarded to this lady come right out of the pay of these officers even if it means they have to pay it back for the rest of their careers.. whatever those careers may be
It won't. Taxpayers will foot the bill and the officers probably will be reprimanded but not fired.

Here's another instance of police misconduct in the news today that cost taxpayers:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/25/us/fort-worth-arrest-lawsuit-settled-reaj/index.html
 

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