Thread: Wives of Border Patrol agents killed in train collision sue

Wives of Border Patrol agents killed in train collision sue





by Michael Kiefer - Mar. 6, 2012 09:03 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com

The wives of two U.S. Border Patrol agents killed last May when their vehicle was struck by a freight train in the desert near Gila Bend have sued the railroad and the irrigation district that owns the land crossed by the tracks.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Pima County Superior Court, names Union Pacific Railroad Co. and Paloma Irrigation and Drainage District as defendants in the wrongful deaths of Agents Hector Clark and Eduardo Rojas on May 12.

Though the suit does not specify damages, in a notice of claim filed against the irrigation district, the families' attorney asked for $17.5million for each death. Because the irrigation district is a government entity, it must be served with a notice of claim before a lawsuit can be filed.

Clark, 39, and Rojas, 34, were helping state and federal law-enforcement officers track drug smugglers when they were killed. They were driving beside the tracks past a mile-and-a-half-long train that was parked on a siding right before an unprotected railroad crossing.

According to the lawsuit's complaint, the stopped train created the optical illusion of being on a main, single track, when, in fact, it was parked on a siding next to the track.

Because of the parked train, Clark and Rojas could not see that a second train was traveling on the track beyond it at about 62 miles per hour. Their vision blocked, they turned in front of the stopped train to cross the tracks and were broadsided by the second train. Both agents were pronounced dead at the scene.

In the lawsuit, K. Thomas Slack, the attorney for the families of Clark and Rojas, notes that there have been six crashes at the crossing since 1984, including one fatality in 2003, when a 24-year-old man was killed under very similar circumstances. Slack won an undisclosed settlement for that death from Union Pacific Railroad.

But Slack noted in his present complaint: "After the death, and rather than installing lights and gates at the crossing, Union Pacific instead entered into an agreement with (the irrigation district)." According to Slack, Union Pacific refused to pay for the safety improvements and demanded that the irrigation district do so. Nothing was built, Slack said, despite the danger.

Attorneys for Union Pacific could not be reached for comment. Milton W. Hathaway Jr., an attorney for the irrigation district, said that he had only received the lawsuit Monday.

"We're looking at it. There's a lot of discovery to be done," he said. "We feel for the families, but there's a lot to be done."

Slack said he hopes the case goes to trial, but his goal is not a large settlement.

"What my clients want more than anything ... is to fix the crossing," he said. "They don't want this to happen to another family."

Read more: Wives of Border Patrol agents killed in train collision sue

I am sorry for these wives loss, but IMO this is a frivolous lawsuit. This accident was as much the officer's fault as anyone elses. These women should be suing Messico...