Woman awarded $8.5 million after being left inside police car that was hit by train

Warning: Distressing content

A woman has been awarded $8.5 million after being left inside a police car that was hit by a freight train.

In the footage released by the Fort Lupton Police Department, Yareni Rios-Gonzalez could be seen being handcuffed by officers in September 2022 after she was identified as a possible suspect in a road rage case.

Rios-Gonzalez was pulled over by police officers, Sgt. Pablo Vasquez and Fort Lupton Police Officer Jordan Steinke, at a railroad crossing after a report came in alleging her of threatening someone with a gun, CBS reports.

Cops then took Rios-Gonzalez into a Platteville Police Department patrol car parked on train tracks behind her car.

They then went back to check her truck to see if anyone was inside before searching for any potential weapons.

While Rios-Gonzalez sat in the truck, a train horn could be heard before striking the sitting car and pushed it into a nearby field.

One of the officers on the scene could be heard in the video calling for a medical response, while another said: "The suspect was in the vehicle that was hit by the train."

Rios-Gonzalez was rushed to hospital with multiple injuries, though she did thankfully survive the incident.

The police car was hit by a train. (Fort Lupton Police Department)

However, she did suffer several broken bones and a traumatic brain injury, her attorney, Paul Wilkinson, told Colorado Public Radio.

According to Wilkinson, she had also been trying to get the officers' attention before the car was hit.

Speaking to CNN, he said: “When she was in the back of the car, she was able to see the train coming.

“She was frantically trying to escape, trying to open the doors, but she was handcuffed.”

However, Steinke's defense attorneys claimed that she did not know that Vazquez had parked the car on the tracks, The Guardian reported.

Now, Rios-Gonzalez has been awarded a $8.5 million dollar settlement - with attorney Eric M. Ziporin telling CNN that the payment will be split equally between the town and city and paid by their insurers.

Rios-Gonzalez was pulled over by police over a suspected road-rage incident (Fort Lupton Police Department)

"This is an excellent result and a hard-fought result," Wilkinson said as reported by The New York Post. "She is up and moving around.

"She is still recovering from some physical and emotional impacts that she'll be dealing with for the rest of her life.

"But considering she got hit by a train, she's doing all right."

Last year, Vasquez and Steinke were charged with multiple felony and misdemeanour counts.

After pleading guilty to reckless endangerment in December, Vasquez was sentenced to 12 months of unsupervised probation, as per Associated Press.

He was also fired by his department.

Meanwhile, Steinke was convicted of the same charge plus a misdemeanor for assault and was given 30 months of supervised probation and 100 hours community service.

UNILAD has reached out to Platteville and Fort Lupton police departments for comment.