Police Cuff Woman in Back of Patrol Car, Minutes Before it is Struck by a Train

Authorities in Colorado have released an edited eight-minute video showing police leave a suspect in the back of a patrol cruiser as it is struck by an oncoming train. In 2021, 26% of the 893 railroad-related deaths occurred at rail crossings.

The video was released on Friday by the Platteville and Fort Lupton police departments. It shows one police officer arriving on the scene where another officer had pulled over Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, 20. At that time the patrol vehicle was already parked directly on the train tracks, a few yards behind Rios-Gonzalez’s vehicle. The rail crossing signs are visible.

After making her exit her vehicle, police handcuff Rios-Gonzalez and place her in the back of the police vehicle. They then start searching the car when the train’s horn can be heard in the background. It takes at least 15 seconds after the first horn can be heard for the officer to realize a train is oncoming. One officer can be heard yelling “move your car” before another says “stay back.”

The freight train then barrels into the car, with Rios-Gonzalez still inside. It appears that the cops may have forgotten that Rios-Gonzalez was in the vehicle, initially telling radio dispatchers “a patrol car has been hit by a train,” before adding “Get us medical, emergent. The suspect was in the vehicle that was hit by the train.”

According to Rios-Gonzalez’s lawyer, Paul Wilkinson, she suffered a broken arm that needed surgery, nine broken ribs, a fractured sternum, a back injury, and a head injury. She remains hospitalized but is expected to survive.

While Rios-Gonzalez was unconscious when she reached the hospital, Wilkinson says that she remembers the crash.

“She saw it coming and could hear the horn,” Wilkinson said. “She was trying to get the police officers’ attention, screaming at them. She tried unlocking the door. She had her hands behind her back and was frantically trying to unlock the door.”

He added that the officers are to blame for her injuries. “You just never park on a train track. You have to park somewhere else.”

The police released the video to the Denver Post, which obtained it through an open records request.

Police were responding to a report of a road rage incident involving a gun when they stopped Rios-Gonzalez. Before and after the crash, police can be seen searching her vehicle where they found a gun holster, but it is unclear if a gun was recovered. Rios-Gonzalez has not been charged with a crime. A Union Pacific spokesperson told the Denver Post that the train’s crew was not injured in the crash.

According to the Denver Post, one police officer has been placed on paid administrative leave after the incident. The Platteville police chief, Carl Dwyer, declined to reveal any of the officers’ names or answer other questions involving the crash.

The Fort Lupton police are continuing the investigation of the alleged road rage incident, while the Colorado state patrol is examining the crash, and the Colorado Bureau of Investigations is looking into the injuries Rios-Gonzalez sustained while in police custody.