Trending

Camera footage shows train hitting Colorado police car with woman inside vehicle

WELD COUNTY, Colo. — Dramatic video released by Colorado police shows the moment a freight train struck a police patrol vehicle with a 20-year-old woman handcuffed in the back seat.

>> Read more trending news

Videos released Friday by the Platteville and Fort Lupton police departments show the patrol car, which was parked on the train tracks, struck by the train on Sept. 16, KUSA-TV reported.

Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, of Greeley, suffered numerous broken bones when the Platteville police cruiser was hit, according to the television station. Video released Friday shows Rios-Gonzalez was in the vehicle for about two minutes before it was struck by the freight train.

Warning: Graphic video below.

The Fort Lupton Police Department released an edited eight-minute video of several officers’ and deputies’ body cameras who responded to the initial call, KMGH-TV reported.

According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, officers received a call about an alleged road rage incident involving a firearm in Fort Lupton, KDVR-TV reported. An officer with the Platteville Police Department made a traffic stop, and Rios-Gonzalez pulled over just past the railroad tracks, according to the television station. The police cruiser stopped behind her vehicle on the tracks.

Rios-Gonzalez was placed in the back of the police vehicle and officers searched her vehicle, CBS News reported.

“Officers cleared the suspect vehicle to determine if anyone else was in the vehicle,” the Fort Lupton Police Department said in a statement. “Within a matter of seconds, the Platteville police vehicle, which contained the female detainee, was struck by a northbound train. Fort Lupton Officers immediately summoned medical assistance and began life-sustaining measures.”

The full video released to KUSA after a records request can be seen below. The end of the video may contain images that are considered disturbing.

In the video, one officer can be heard yelling an expletive after realizing that the Union Pacific train is coming toward the parked patrol vehicle with its horn blaring, The Denver Post reported.

The other yelled for his colleague to “stay back,” the footage shows as the train slams into the vehicle.

“Get us medical, emergency. The suspect was in the vehicle that was hit by the train,” an officer says into her radio.

The train crew was not injured, Robynn Tysver, a Union Pacific spokesperson, told the Post in an email.

The woman’s attorney, Paul Wilkinson, told the Post on Friday that he is amazed she survived the train’s impact, adding that she suffered a broken arm that has needed surgery, nine broken ribs, a fractured sternum, a back injury and a head injury.

Wilkinson said that he could not understand why officers parked the cruiser on the tracks and then failed to move it after Rios-Gonzalez was detained.

“It’s kind of unbelievable they did something like this,” Wilkinson told the newspaper. “I don’t think you ever park on a train track. Ever. That would have avoided the whole situation. You just never park on a train track. You have to park somewhere else.”

Rios-Gonzalez has not been charged in connection with the road rage incident, Krista Henery, a spokesperson for the Weld County District Attorney’s Office, told the Post.

The crash remains under investigation.