Woman Struck by Train While Locked in Police Car To Get $8.5 Million Settlement

Yareni Rios was severely injured after a train struck a police car she had been placed in after being arrested in 2022.

In 2022, Yareni Rios was arrested in connection with an alleged road rage incident. When police detained her near train tracks in Weld County, Colorado, they left her locked in a police car parked on the tracks. Soon after, a train struck the car, leaving Rios with broken ribs, a broken arm, and injuries to her head, back, and legs.

Last year, Rios sued the officers responsible. This week, two Colorado towns agreed to pay her a whopping $8.5 million settlement.

"This is an excellent result," Paul Wilkinson, an attorney for Rios, told 9NEWS, a local news station, "especially when dealing with small municipalities with limited funds amid a hard fought battle for our client."

On September 16, 2022, Fort Lupton Police Officer Pablo Vasquez pulled over Rios on suspicion of participating in an earlier road rage incident, according to 9NEWS. Rios stopped after the train tracks, while Vasquez parked directly on the tracks. After being handcuffed, another officer, Jordan Steinke, placed Rios in the back of the car.

According to Colorado Public Radio, as the officers searched Rios' vehicle, a freight train approached. Though the train's conductor honked his horn several times, the officers didn't respond. The train struck Vasquez's vehicle at nearly 48 mph, sending the car rolling and traveling about half a mile before stopping.

Video footage of the incident shows the officers' shock after the collision.

"She was in there," one officer said after the train struck the vehicle.

"Oh fuck. Oh fuck," another replied.

Rios filed a lawsuit in January 2023, alleging that the officers engaged in negligent and reckless conduct when they trapped her in Vasquez's vehicle parked on the tracks. After more than a year of litigation, the suit was settled this week, with Rios being awarded over $8 million in damages.

Both Vasquez and Steinke were criminally charged for their role in the incident. In July 2023, Steinke was found guilty of misdemeanor reckless endangerment and third-degree assault. In December of that same year, Vasquez pled guilty to misdemeanor reckless endangerment.

Comments

[Chumby]

She was able to choo choo choose effective legal representation.

[Pablo long cock]

Now post some Russian propaganda to go along with your lame ass joke.

[DuaneMaxwell-HillWozniel]

Fuck you leftist faggot

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Why? Do you need something to jerk off to? You fucking pinko.

[JohnZ]

So how much of that $8.5 mil does the lawyer get?
Should have never happened but as a rule most cops are stupid and for the most part work for a paycheck.
At least that poor woman will have some funds to pay for the hospitalization and surgeries she's bound to need not to mention the pain and suffering from those injuries. Her life is ruined and two dumb as hell cops are to blame.

[JeremyR]

Probably 60%

[Chumby]

That police department should have found a way to better engineer a program to train their officers so that they would not engage in this kind of conduct. I never read the articles, so I hope both of them were kicked out on their caboose.

[damikesc]

The obnoxious part is that the cops will not be harmed by their negligence.

Taxpayers will be.

[Rubbish!]

Train driver should be arrested for assaulting a police vehicle, interference with an arrest, getting too close to an active investigation, making fat ass cops have to run, and some other charges too

[creech]

Why the train engineer? We know that somehow, some way it was the fault of DJ Trump and/or the Republican Party of Colorado.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Yup. Those kulak Republicans are always trying to derail the noble Democrats and their thoughts of trains.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Hard to think of a better example of cop arrogance. At least King Canute didn't believe he could stop the tide.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

We need to find a way to attract a better class of people to law enforcement (and military service).

Better education, better temperament, better judgment, better character, better training, better accountability, better equipment, better oversight.

Fewer authoritarian assholes, fewer half-educated bigots, fewer backwater slack-jaws.

[Chumby]

That would need to start with the top cop/Commander-in-chief. The current one drone strike murdered eight kids and an aid worker.

[Chipper Chunked Chile Con Congress (ex NCW)]

Kirkland is only here to trawl for donkey cock.

[MrMxyzptlk]

The profession is self selecting for half educated bigots who want the kind of power that comes with being a cop. The union protects the bad ones and punishes any who try to report on the problems. Eventually the good ones are either driven out or driven to going along with the program.

[n00bdragon]

This. You need an incentive for honorable people with a sense of restraint to put up with bagging society's trash day to day. Money doesn't do it. Those people can get better paying jobs dealing with nicer things.

[IceTrey]

They won't hire smart people because they'd get bored and they don't want anyone questioning their orders.

[Pathogen]

I wonder which PD the two stooges are working for now..

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

That could be a good sitcom. A slapstick comedy where two idiot cops constantly fuck up and do stupid, dangerous, and possibly crooked things, periodically getting fired and going to a new PD. This train thing could be an episode.

[Chumby]

Flaw & Disorder

[JohnZ]

Barney Fife couldn't fuck up like these two did.

[TGoodchild]

""This is an excellent result," Paul Wilkinson, an attorney for Rios"

Yes, well, when your average juror is a complete imbecile who doesn't realize the funds being awarded come from their tax dollars (that they even pay?), this is likely a dodged bullet for the local governments.

[AT]

It was a settlement. There were no jurors.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Right. A jury award would have been bigger.

[AT]

Agreed.

[AT]

I'm frankly surprised it wasn't more. With the injuries she had, coupled with the incredible, inexcusable negligence of those two bonehead cops, I'm amazed that she didn't hold out for eight figures. A jury would have given it to her without thinking, even if warned it would send the city into Chapter 9.

[Seamus]

After being handcuffed, another officer, Jordan Steinke, placed Rios in the back of the car.

Why was Steinke handcuffed? I thought he (or she--I hate these androgynous names) was a cop. (But I'm impressed that he (or she) was able to get Rios into the car while wearing cuffs.)

[Michael Ejercito]

Too bad these officers could not be executed for their gross stupidity.

[John Rohan]

This week, two Colorado towns agreed to pay her a whopping $8.5 million settlement.

Amateur hour. E Jean Carroll was awarded tens times that, not for physical injuries, but for the pain and suffering of being called “crazy” by Donald Trump.

[MollyGodiva]

How did this even get past qualified immunity? I am having a hard time believing that there is an appellate court ruling clearly saying that it is unconstitutional to put a woman who is suspected of street racing into a patrol car on train tracks that then gets hit by a train. This could have been dismissed with one motion.

[John Rohan]

She didn’t file lawsuits against the individual police officers, so I don’t believe qualified immunity applies.

Instead she filed suit against the actual villains, the town and the police department. In other words, the taxpayers are paying for it.

[MollyGodiva]

Unless the town or department has a written or unwritten policy that says police are allowed to put a woman who is suspected of street racing into a patrol car on train tracks that then gets hit by a train, they should have no liability.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Nope. Doesn’t work that way.

[markm23]

The town and PD hired dangerously idiotic people, and gave them guns, badges, handcuffs, and a police car. They are responsible for the cops' actions.

[MollyGodiva]

Not according to case law unless it was documented that the PD was aware of how dangerously idiotic they were before they hired them.

[MollyGodiva]

Follow up: This is a sarcastic comment. QI and municipal liability as done in the US is absurd.

[Scooter]

I'm generally pro-LEO, but this situation was stupid. Clearly, once she was in custody the officers and department were responsible for her safety with regards to predictable threats. Parking a cruiser on or near railroad tracks creates a clear possibility of being struck by a passing train. Hopefully, she'll be able to recover to a normal lifestyle. Also, hopefully, the officer's convictions will result in permanent removal from any law enforcement work.

[ducksalad (5/30 bad, really!)]

Looking at the follow-up stories on the sentencing, the one who put her in the car asked for a trial w/o a jury, and got convicted and sentenced to real probation, which triggered some kind of automatic firing. Don’t know how long she’s prohibited from being an officer, maybe just until the probation is completed, maybe she needs X years since the last criminal conviction. It’s not a felony so one doubts it’s for life.

The other officer who parked on the tracks pled guilty, but instead of being convicted was given deferred adjudication with unsupervised probation, and the case will be dismissed after 12 months if he complies with probation. Since it’s unsupervised I imagine the only restriction is don’t commit any further crimes. The newspaper story specifically noted that this no-conviction arrangement allows him to retain his LEO license so he can seek employment with other PDs.

[AT]

A big part of that, I suspect, is because she survived. A living victim you can provide restitution to (hence her big bucks settlement). A dead one, not so much - not with this level of negligence. Also beneficial to the cops was that she was, in fact, an actively-sought violent and armed criminal suspect behaving erratically. That justified them putting her in the car (though, by no means, justified where the car was parked).

As convoluted as it sounds, because she survived that harrowing incident, we can't pretend she got worse than she actually did and take that out on the cops as if she had. As much as I've read, they're both off the force - and unlikely to be able to return (to theirs or any other). That's a justice win.