When police officers in Colorado pulled over a 20-year-old driver who was involved in a road rage incident, she parked her car next to some train tracks. So what did the Platteville officers do? They parked behind her, right on top of the tracks, and then proceeded to handcuff the woman and place her in the police car.
Minutes later, the sound of a horn blasts in the distance, but do the officers think to move the police car from the tracks to a safer location? Nah. Instead they run off to save themselves, leaving Yareni Rios-Gonzalez trapped inside the vehicle. Naturally, the train barrels into it. The incident was caught on police body and dashcam cameras (see edited video below — train crash starts at 5:35).
Rios-Gonzalez suffered injuries, but miraculously she survived.
From The Washington Post:
Two Fort Lupton police officers arrived to assist in detaining Rios-Gonzalez and searching her truck. Upon arrival, one of those officers drew her gun and took cover behind the Platteville patrol vehicle parked in the middle of the train tracks, her body-camera video shows. Over the course of about three minutes, the officers ordered Rios-Gonzalez to drop her cellphone, kneel on the ground and put her hands up. The female officer then handcuffed Rios-Gonzalez and put her into the vehicle on the tracks. …
As the officers discussed whether it was possible Rios-Gonzalez could have tossed something out the window before the stop, the train horn became louder and more frequent, according to the footage. The officers only appeared to react moments before the collision. …
The Weld County district attorney's office has so far not filed charges against Rios-Gonzalez or any of the officers, a spokeswoman told CNN. …
An attorney for Rios-Gonzalez, Paul Wilkinson, told the Denver Post the situation could have been avoided if the Platteville police officer parked anywhere but the train tracks.
"You just never park on a train track," he said, adding, "It's kind of unbelievable they did something like this."
Front page thumbnail image: body and dashcam screengrab by Fort Lupton Police Department
