A Colorado woman who suffered severe injuries after being handcuffed in a police vehicle that was struck by a train in 2022 will receive a multi-million dollar settlement.
RELATED STORIES: Alarming Video Shows Train Hitting Police Car With Suspect Inside
PEOPLE reported that Yareni Rios-Gonzalez was awarded $8.5 million following her lawsuit against the cities of Platteville and Fort Lupton. Her attorney, Paul Wilkinson, said his client is still recovering from her injuries, but she is “happy to move on to a new chapter in her life.” The complaint filed by Gonzalez revealed that Sgt. Pablo Cesar Vazquez of the Platteville Police Department responded to a road rage incident involving a firearm on September 16, 2022. Rios-Gonzalez parked her car on Weld County Road 36 after clearing the railroad tracks while Vasquez stopped the police car atop the train tracks.
The court document said after Rios-Gonzalez was ordered out of her vehicle, she was left handcuffed inside the police car parked on the tracks while the officers searched her car. Moments later, a Union Pacific Cargo train arrived and struck the police vehicle, causing it to roll twice and travel about a half-mile northeast.
RELATED STORIES: Prayers: Former NBA star Delonte West Arrested Again After Collapsing While Fleeing Police
According to the complaint, Rios-Gonzalez suffered “serious injuries, damages, harms, and losses” due to the collision. The complaint also mentioned that there were red stop signs, railroad white crossing signs, and a blue emergency notification sign with a phone number that the officers could’ve called to notify Union Pacific Railroad of police activity on the tracks.
Vazquez and Steinke were fired from their police departments and charged. Vazquez pleaded guilty to a count of reckless endangerment and 12 months of unsupercised probation and Steinke was found guilty of reckless endangerment and assault. He received 30 months of supervised probation.
